CHAPTER XVI.
Every day at ten o’clock the south wind came hotter and stronger up fromthe sea. The sissoo trees on the Maidan trembled into delicate flower,and their faint, fresh fragrance stood like a spell about them. The teakpushed out its awkward rags, tawdry and foolish, but divinely green; andhere and there a tamarind by the roadside lifted its gracious head, likea dream-tree in a billow of misty leaf. The days grew long and lovely;the coolies going home at sunset across the burnt grass of the Maidanjoined hands and sang, with marigolds round their necks. The white-facedaliens of Calcutta walked there too, but silently, for “exercise.” Thecrows grew noisier than ever, for it was young crow time; the fever-birdcame and told people to put up their punkahs. The Viceroy and all thatwere officially his departed to Simla, and great houses in Chowringheewere to let. It was announced rather earlier than usual that His Honourthe Lieutenant-Governor would go “on tour,” which had no reference toSouthern Europe, but meant inspection duty in remote parts of theprovince. Mrs. Church would accompany the Lieutenant-Governor. The localpapers, in making this known, said it was hoped that the change of airwould completely restore “one of Calcutta’s most brilliant and popularhostesses,” whose health for the past fortnight had been regrettablyunsatisfactory.
The Dayes went to Darjiling, and Dr. MacInnes to England. Dr. MacInnes’expenses to England, and those of Shib Chunder Bhose, who accompaniedhim, were met out of a fund which had swelled astonishingly consideringthat it was fed by Bengali sentiment—the fund established to defeat theCollege Grants Notification. Dr. MacInnes went home, as one of the nobleband of Indian missionaries, to speak to the people of England, and toexplain to them how curiously the administrative mind in India becameperverted in its conceptions of the mother country’s duty to the heathenmasses who look to her for light and guidance. Dr. MacInnes was preparedto say that the cause of Christian missions in India had been put backfifty years by the ill-judged act, so fearful in its ultimateconsequences, of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. Since that highofficial could not be brought to consider his responsibility to hisMaker, he should be brought to consider his responsibility to the peopleof England. Dr. MacInnes doubtless did not intend to imply that thelatter tribunal was the higher of the two, but he certainly produced theimpression that it was the more effective.
Shib Chunder Bhose, in fluent and deferential language, heightened thisimpression, which did no harm to the cause. Shib Chunder Bhose had beenfound willing, in consideration of a second-class passage, to accompanyDr. MacInnes in the character of a University graduate who was also aChristian convert. Shib Chunder’s father had married a Mohamedan woman,and so lost his caste, whereafter he embraced Christianity becauseFather Ambrose’s predecessor had given him four annas every time he cameto catechism. Shib Chunder inherited the paternal religion, withcontumely added on the score of his mother, and, since he could make noother pretension, figured in the College register as Christian. A youngman anxious to keep pace with the times, he had been a Buddhist since,and afterwards professed his faith in the tenets of Theosophy; butwhenever he fell ill or lost money he returned irresistibly to theprocedure of his youth, and offered rice and marigolds to the VirginMary. Dr. MacInnes therefore certainly had the facts on his side when heaffectionately referred to his young friend as living testimony to thework of educational missions in India, living proof of the falsity ofthe charge that the majority of mission colleges were mere secularinstitutions. As his young friend wore a frock-coat and a humble smile,and was able on occasion to weep like anything, the effect in theprovinces was tremendous.
Dr. MacInnes gave himself to the work with a zeal which entirely meritedthe commendation he received from his conscience. Sometimes he lecturedtwice a day. He was always freely accessible to interviewers from thereligious press. He refrained, in talking to these gentlemen, from allpersonal malediction of the Lieutenant-Governor—it was the sin he had todo with, not the distinguished sinner—and thereby gained a widespreadreputation for unprejudiced views. Portraits of the reverend crusaderand Shib Chunder Bhose appeared on the posters which announced Dr.MacInnes’ subject in large letters—“MISSIONS AND MAMMON. SHALL ALIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR ROB GOD?”—and in all the illustrated papers. Thematter arrived regularly with the joint at Hammersmith Sundaydinner-tables. Finally the _Times_ gave it almost a parochialimportance, and solemnly, in two columns, with due respect forconstituted authority, came to no conclusion at all from every point ofview.
The inevitable question was early asked in Parliament, and theUnder-Secretary of State said he would “inquire.” Further questions wereasked on different and increasingly urgent grounds, with the object ofreminding and hastening the Secretary of State. A popular Nonconformistpreacher told two thousand people in Exeter Hall that they and he couldno longer conscientiously vote to keep a Government in office that wouldhesitate to demand the instant resignation of an official who hadbrought such shame upon the name of England. Shortly afterwards one hon.member made a departure in his attack upon Mr. John Church, whichcompletely held the attention of the House while it lasted. The effectwas unusual, to be achieved by this particular hon. member, and he didit by reading aloud the whole of an extremely graphic and able articlecriticising His Honour’s policy from the _Bengal Free Press_.
“I put it to hon. members,” said he, weightily, in conclusion, “whetherany one of us, in our boasted superiority of intellect, has the right tosay that people who can thus express themselves do not know what theywant!”
That evening, before he went to bed, Lord Strathell, Secretary of Statefor India, in Eaton Square, London, wrote a note to Lord Scansleigh,Viceroy and Governor-General of India, in Viceregal Lodge, Simla. Thenote was written on Lady Strathell’s letter-paper, which was delicatelyscented and bore a monogram and coronet. It was a very private andfriendly note, and it ran:—
“DEAR SCANSLEIGH: I needn’t tell you how much I regret the necessity ofmy accompanying official letter asking you to arrange Church’sretirement. I can quite understand that it will be most distasteful toyou, as I know you have a high opinion of him, both personally and as anadministrator. But the Missionary Societies, etc., have got us into thetightest possible place over his educational policy. Already severalNonconformist altars—if there are such things—are crying out for thelibation of our blood. Somebody must be offered up. I had a Commissionsuggested, and it was received with rage and scorn. Nothing will do butChurch’s removal from his present office—and the sooner the better. Isuppose we must find something else for him.
“Again assuring you of my personal regret, believe me, dear Scansleigh,yours cordially,
”STRATHELL.
“P.S.—Thus Party doth make Pilates of us all.”