admirers of Quakerism that its founder | tenets were a rejection of all mediatory was unquestionably a very vulgar and il- agency between God and man, so absolute literate fellow. Syud Ahmed, the origina- as even to exclude the mediation of Mator of the Mahometan revival in India, ap- homet himself; a new and professedly pears to have been-and the contrast more literal interpretation of the text of with Fox is significant ―a very perfect the Koran; the repudiation of the comparspecimen of the violent Oriental black- atively few ceremonies and observances guard. "He began life," says Mr. Hunter, which have grown up within the pale of as a horse-soldier in the service of a cel- Mahometanism, including the practice of ebrated freebooter, who harried the rich erecting the beautiful tombs which charm opium-growing villages of Malwa;" but, the Eastern traveller; and a constant when the trade of a bandit became dan- waiting and looking for the appearance of gerous and unprofitable, through the the new Prophet who is to lead the Faithstern order which the great Sikh adven- ful to victory. With these doctrines, which turer and chief, Runjeet Singh, imposed on are made respectable to us by our own rehis Mussulman neighbours, Syud Ahmed ligious associations, the original Wahabees "suited himself to the times, gave up rob- coupled a long string of childish and vexabery, and, about 1816, went to study the tious prohibitions. But, in the preaching sacred law under a doctor of high repute of the Indian apostle, all the new opinions, at Delhi." A reputation for devoutness is respectable or ridiculous, were practically not, however, quite as easily obtained subordinated to one great article of belief. among Mahometans as in some Christian This was the imperative duty of sacred communities, and Syud Ahmed had to war against infidel rulers. Nearly all make a pilgrimage to Mecca about as India was under the government of Chrisformidable an undertaking to a native of tians or Hindoos. Of the mighty MaUpper India as can be well conceived. At hometan empire, which had once covered Mecca he came under the influences which the whole country with its shadow, only gave its singularity to his subsequent two considerable fragments remained, Indian career. The sacred city had been the state governed by the prince called only lately recovered by the arms of Me- the Nizam in the south, and the kingdom hemet Ali of Egypt from the dominion of of Oudh in the north, the latter ruled, inthat strange sect of reformed Mahome-deed, by a Mahometan sovereign, but a tans the Wahabees - which had been sovereign who belonged to an heretical formed a hundred years earlier by the sect. No assumption is more distinctly preaching of Abdul Wahab of Nejd. Vio- made by the original records of Islam lently suppressed by a combined effort than that, wherever there are Mahomeon the part of all orthodox Islams, they tans, they govern the country. There are revived after a time sufficiently to form the little Arabian State which attracted so much interest a year or two since through the description of it given by Mr. Palgrave. Still more recently, the advances of this warlike power towards the principalities protected by the English on the Persian Gulf had to be carefully watched by the Indian Government, and at this very moment it is understood to be making a desperate resistance to the flower of the army which the Turkish Sultan has restored to efficiency through the money he has borrowed wholesale in Europe. The peculiar religious doctrines of the Wahabees must have lingered at Mecca when Syud Ahmed was there, for he came back to India not merely invested with the stately spiritual dignity of a returned Mahometan pilgrim, but animated with the fanaticism of a Wahabee propagandist. Immediately after his landing at Bombay he is said to have begun preaching on the special articles of the reformed faith. Among the most striking of these

plenty of texts to regulate the relations between Mahometan rulers and unbelieving subjects; none whatever to define the duty of Mahometan subjects towards an infidel government. A reformer who sought to revive the principles of Mahomet's tendency in their primitive purity, had his attention fixed by the necessity of the case on the great anomaly before his eyes. Mahometans were obeying Christians and Hindoos, and holding their religious privileges by the nnholy tenure of infidel toleration or favour. This was the crying sin and shame which Syud Ahmed and his followers set themselves to denounce. The teaching of the Wahabee missionaries in India came thus to consist in placing an alternative before the faithfuleither fight or emigrate. The literal duty of fighting may sometimes be postponed by paying tithes out of your substance to support armies which are being levied for sacred war; but, if you cannot subscribe, you must send your sons to the camp. Mr. Hunter quotes from Wahabee composi

tions some remarkable passages setting punished. The Mahometans of the Punjab forth the alternative blessings of war or have indeed at this hour the peculiar subemigration. "Holy war it is written missive look of a long-oppressed and in one of these - -"sends copious showers down-trodden community. Partly in order at seasonable times, abundant supplies of to have a base for his operations against vegetable produce, good times, so that the great Sikh chief, and partly, doubtless, people are void of care and free from to give a point and meaning to the exhorcalamities, whilst their property increases tations of his Indian emissaries on the in value and there is an increase in the subject of emigration to the territory of number of learned men, the justness of Islam, the Prophet fixed his residence judges, the conscientiousness of suitors, among the mountaineers of the hills on the and the liberality of the rich. These western side of the Indus. The descripblessings, increased a hundred-fold, are tions of the Scottish Highlanders in the granted when the dignity of the Mahome- seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, tan religion is upheld, and Mahometan which we owe to the genius of Macaulay kings, possessing powerful armies, become and Walter Scott, would be absolutely exalted and promulgate and enforce the true of these wild Pathan tribes, but for Mahometan law in all countries." If, one great feature of difference. Their therefore, the Holy War succeeds, there religion always sat very lightly on the will be more famines in India, no more Highlandmen: the tribes of the transjudicial corruption, no more fraudulent or Indus mountains are furiously bigoted to unjust litigation. The spiritual advan- Mahometanism. This zeal for religion tages of the other branch of the alterna- does little to heal the "blood-feuds " of tive emigration to an orthodox country the Pathan clans, the state of permanent are illustrated by a striking apologue inter-tribal warfare which they have inwhich Mr. Hunter gives at length. An herited from quarrels and jealousies of Israelite, after committing the most awful crimes, was warned by a holy man that his lot would be eternal punishment unless he sincerely repented and departed from the land of the infidel. He began his journey, but did not live to complete it, and the Angels of Mercy and Punishment had a contest for his soul. The point in dispute between them was decided by actual measurement. It was found that one foot of the penitent Israelite had crossed the boundary of a kingdom of Islam; and so the dead man was saved.

immemorial date; but, for the purpose of combining them against a common infidel enemy, it may be turned into a temporary bond of union far stronger than the common devotion to the House of Stuart or common hatred of the House of Argyll, which, from time to time, animated the great Highland confederacies. The new Prophet inflamed the tribes to madness by his preaching. "Their avarice," says Mr. Hunter, was enlisted by splendid promises of plunder; their religion by the assurance that he was divinely comA good many obscure local disturbances missioned to extirpate the whole infidel which took place in British India, and par- world, from the Sikhs even unto the Chiticularly in the North-Eastern Provinces, nese.' Some of the raids which he orbetween 1820 and 1850, have now been ganized into the dominions of Runject clearly traced to Wahabee agitation and Singh, which lay below the mountains, aspropagandism, but it was not the British sumed the proportions of military expeIndian Empire which had to bear the first ditions, and on one occasion he even capserious shock from the new religious move- tured Peshawur, the western capital of ment. The system of states united in a the Sikh prince. On the whole, however, compact despotic monarchy by Runjeet the advantage remained with the stubborn Singh were the first object of Syud and warlike race whom Syud Ahmed was Ahmed's aggressions. Here, if anywhere, attacking, disciplined as they now were the Mahometans had what, with our ideas, by European military adventurers in the we should call a real grievance. The pay of Runjeet Singh. The Prophet was Sikhs, a body of Hindoo sectaries, had im- surprised by the Sikhs in 1831, and killed bibed a stern fanaticism of their own in battle. But the succession to his office from religious reform, and they dealt out continued. One of his lieutenants, with to the Mahometans who dwelt among signal ingenuity, turned to his own purthem pretty much the same treatment poses both the fanaticism and the quarrelwhich Hindoos had occasionally received someness of the North-Western hill tribes. in Mahometan states under specially big- He acquired their veneration as a hermit oted sovereigns. The Call to Prayer was and ascetic, and obtained from them a forbidden, the killing of cows was severely grant of lands which were to be neutral.

ground for ever, whither the man with was again heard, and the killing of the cow the avenger of blood behind him might al- for beef, a privilege valued by Mahomways flee for refuge. Here was founded etans in proportion to its odiousness Sitana, the fanatical colony, famous in the in the eyes of their Hindoo fellow-countryrecent military history of India. Long men, was again permitted. Even as we before the British Government came into write, the news comes to England that direct conflict with the fanatics through the British authorities in the Punjab have the annexation of the Punjab, much of just had to suppress a sanguinary riot in their activity and occasional success would the great commercial city of Umritsur, have been unintelligible, but for the in- arising out of an attack of the Sikh popfluences which radiated backwards and ulace on the shops of the hateful Mahomeforwards between British India and this tan butchers. Yet the colony at Sitana settlement. The emissaries of the Proph- has stirred up just as many coalitions of et had in fact organized a system of re- the tribes against our power as ever it ligious and rebellious propagandism did against our oppressive Sikh predecesamong the Mahometans of the richest and sors. It would be hardly exaggeration to most populous provinces of the British In- say that we have been at perpetual war dian Empire. Money was constantly flow- with these mountaineers ever since our ing from our dominions to Sitana, and, conquest. At least two regular camunless fed by money, the fanaticism of paigns have been undertaken against them, the mountaineers is a flame which blazes of which the story is very clearly and and burns out. The more ardent or vividly told in the volume before us. One poorer devotees of the Wahabee cause of them, still remembered as the Umbeyla went themselves or sent their sons to the campaign, very nearly ended in a serious sacred settlement. The subscription of disaster. It was ill-planned, though probmoney was only a temporary compromise ably the mistakes of conception were allowed until the actual Jehad or Holy avoidable, so imperfect is our knowledge War should break out, but emigration to of the marvellously difficult country occua land of Islam was an alternative clearly pied by the clans, and so hard is it to permitted by the Prophet, and Sitana be- judge at any given time what amount of longed pre-eminently to Islam. The sol- combination among the tribes is at the diers of the faith thus recruited were by no back of a particular movement. The means of the best military material which troops were completely brought to a India affords; it is somewhat singular that check in a most dangerous position, and the Wahabee fanaticism prevails nearly ex- still more unfortunately the difficulty occlusively among the least warlike races of curred just when the Indian Government the country. But the emigrants had their was partially dislocated by the sudden whole heart in the cause; for it they were death of the Viceroy, Lord Elgin. But a capable of the utmost self-denial; and few days of hesitation were followed by a thus they formed a nucleus of association vigorous advance, a panic spread among peculiarly valuable when the bulk of the the confederates, and they finally agreed confederacy had to consist of fickle and to expel the fanatics and dismantle Sitana. avaricious Pathan highlanders. This occurred in 1863, but again in 1868 The British conquest of the Punjab, a large force had to occupy the Black provoked by the wanton aggression of Mountain, a fragment of the same highthe Sikh captains, brought the Indian land country which lies on the east bank Government face to face with the fanatics of the Indus, and the troops, who practiof Sitana and their allies. The moun- cally met on this occasion with no resisttaineers of the North-Western hills be- ance, were able just before they retired to came our next-door neighbours. If the catch a sight of the fanatical emigrants special Wahabee hatred of infidel rulers moving on the opposite bank of the great depended in any way on such grievances river. Mr. Hunter sums up the force as civilized men can recognize (and our which has had on various occasions to sole complaint against Mr. Hunter is that move out against the fanatics and their he sometimes seems to assume a real con- allies. The aggregate is very considernection between the two), the hostility of able, though it is a little dwarfed by the the fanatics ought to have been signally enormous totals to which the latest Euromoderated by the policy now pursued in pean wars have accustomed us. If indeed the territories close to them. The new we were to count the cost in money, the governers of the Punjab began to treat result would fairly bear comparison with the Mahometans on precisely the same the military expenditure of European footing as the Sikhs. The Call to Prayer powers. All war and all waiting for war

are in India enormously expensive, and, there the least ground for misgiving as to putting the cost of suppressing the Sepoy its power of protecting itself against them. Mutiny aside, the great cause of military The one great danger to the British Indian outlay has of late years been the control Empire is ignorance of facts; once alive of the North-Western frontier. In fact, to these, its rulers are much too ably and when we speak of the military occupation energetically served for any conspiracy to of India we mean in reality the military have appreciable chances of success. We occupation of the parts of the Punjab ad- must own with some shame that the chief jacent to this boundary. Here the great difficulties of the Indian Government in bulk of our troops are collected. Here alone dealing with the Wahabee movement have in India the soldier finds excitement to vary been created by Englishmen. On the the dull monotony of peace. Here is the whole, it has treated the detected conspirschool in which some of the best of our ators with singular leniency. Only two military officers have been trained, Lord of them have been brought to trial, and Napier of Magdala, Lord Sandhurst, Sir the one last prosecuted would probably Sidney Cotton, and Sir Neville Chamber- never have been tried at all but for an outlain; and here Lord Lawrence acquired cry got up among the Englishmen of Calhis rare aptitude for the civil side of mil- cutta against the proceedings in his case. itary administration. The truth is, that The man, a rich Mahometan, who owed India is in very much the same state in his fortune to the English Government, which Great Britain would be if the High- but was afterwards shown to have been lands had remained to our day without all his life a centre of conspiracy against change since the years before 1745. To it, was arrested in Calcutta, and detained complete the parallel, however, we must near it in honourable custody under some suppose the Highlanders to be animated special powers conferred by law on the with all the devotion to Rome and all the Governor-General, which seem to us a detestation of Protestantism which char- marvel of moderation and considerateness acterize the Celts of Ireland, and we must by the side of those given to the Lord conceive trials of Jacobites for treason to Lieutenant of Ireland in the Westmeath be still occurring, and Jacobite squires in and Peace Preservation Acts. Nobody, the south of England to be constantly re- however, who knows what Englishmen are mitting subsidies to a Papal legate some- all over the world can wonder that a writ where in the Grampians for the use of the of Habeas Corpus was moved for in the Camerons, the Frasers, or the Macgregors. local tribunal, or that it should have been Mr. Hunter devotes a great deal of his argued that the British Constitution had space to a description of the mechanism been violated by the confinement of an of conspiracy organized for almost half a Oriental fanatic debauched by religious century in North-Eastern India, and he principles imparted from Central Arabia. illustrates it very completely by compar- Still, it might have been at least expected ing it to the Fenian distribution of func- that, in a country in which to be vituperattions between Head-Centres, and District- ed is to be weak, the advocates for this Centres in the United States. Patna, in Wahabee sectary would refrain from Behar, has been to the Wahabee fanatics speaking of the Government which reprewhat New York has been to the Fenians, sented the British race in language about and the various local depositaries of the equally coloured with animosity and consecret are now known to have correspond- tempt. Nobody, however, profited less by ed with one another, with their chiefs, and these proceedings than the Mahometan with the exiles at Sitana in a sort of conspirator himself. The Indian Governciphered language, borrowed from the ment appears to have felt itself compelled ordinary transactions of Indian trade. In to bring him to regular trial; he was contheir letters and messages, a battle be- victed the other day on the clearest evicame a "law-suit," God was the Law-dence and sentenced to transportation for agent;" remittances for Sitana in gold mohurs were spoken of as rosaries of red beads, and remittances in money as the price of books and merchandise; drafts or money orders became white stones, the amount being intimated by the number of white beads on a rosary. During the last the Indian Government has more and more got its eye and hand on these subaltern intrigues; nor, in our opinion, is

few

years,

66

life.

The Indian Mahometans have recently had their numbers increased to some extent by successful proselytism in Eastern Bengal, but they are undoubtedly, on the whole, a sinking and decaying community. Nobody who knows what their government of India was can regret it, or regret that our own Government, which has suc'ceeded it, is, in the main, a government in

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the interest of the Hindoos, or, in other how the disputed points are to be decided; words, of the enormous majority of the but the complete identification of religious population. Still, among thirty millions with secular rule under the Mahometan of men, which is the total roughly assigned theory carries with it the remarkable conto the Mahometans of India, there will be sequence that a Mahometan may obtain an great numbers too sensible, too comfort- opinion on a case of conscience bearing a able, or too timid to be ready to engage very close analogy to the opinion of counin a vulgar, fanatical, and now very dan- sel in England on a question of law. Cererous, conspiracy. This is the class of tain doctors of mixed law and theology Indian Mahometans on whose behalf Mr. are placed, by the general consent of MaHunter asks, on his title-page, the ques- hometans, on very much the same eminent tion, "Are they bound in conscience to footing as certain barristers in this counrebel against the Queen? The exhorta-try; and the Mussulman who has got an tions and denunciations of the Wahabee opinion from them may act on it with as missionaries have caused them a discom- much confidence as an Englishman on the fort which we, with our Western ideas, opinion of Sir Roundell Palmer or Sir have the greatest difficulty in understand- John Coleridge. A variety of these opining. For the most part, we receive with ions have been obtained by the well-afthe utmost equanimity the imputation of fected Mahometans in India; and it is sattheological or political error. That men isfactory to find that, though Mr. Hunter of the same race, country and religion as raises objections to some of them which ourselves should consider us to be in the we will afterwards mention, they have, on wrong on a number of vital points, we the whole, given comfort and consolation take to be a matter of course, and we are to the persons who sought them. We will generally ready to let them keep their quote from Mr. Hunter's Appendix two opinions, leaving to us our own; but, on curious examples of cases stated to great the principles of Mahometan faith, there Mahometan authorities, followed by their is no distinction between secular and re- opinions on the cases. In order to comligious life, between orthodoxy on the one prehend them it must be understood that, hand, and good manners and good morals in the view of religious Mahometans, the on the other. If a professed Mahometan, whole world is distributed into Kingdoms carrying about him the evidences of ear- of the Faithful and Kingdoms of the nestness and devotion, tells another Ma- Enemy, and that the first proposition with hometan that he is dishonouring the which the Wahabees start is that India, Prophet and the Book because he abstains after having been a Kingdom of the Faithfrom overt acts of treason, the charge can- | ful, has, by passing under the rule of not be met with mere ridicule or contempt Christians and Hindoos, become a King-it most probably rankles in the con-dom of the Enemy. The first of these science, and causes the acutest suffering. The well-to-do landowner or banker, the easy-going Government official, feels that he has no vocation for conspiracy; yet to be told that he is a heretic gives him a strong sensation of losing respectability, even if it does not raise those terrible fears of future punishment, which torment all Orientals to whom a hell is an article of faith. If we can suppose a proud and devout Protestant of Ulster charged by a co-religionist with some strange heresy just after the disestablishment of the Irish Church, we shall have a feeble notion of the disgust caused to the great majority of Mahometans by the upbraidings of the Wahabees. The classes, therefore, among them who are well-affected to the British Government, or who despair of overturning it, have spared no pains to obtain an authoritative condemnation of the Wahabee doctrine. Since Mahometanism has neither priesthood nor presbytery, it is not quite easy to understand at first sight

documents contains the question put to the law doctors at Mecca, the heads of the three great Mahometan sects, and their joint reply:

Q. What is your opinion (may your greatness continue for ever) on the question, Whether the rulers of which the country of Hindostan are Christians, and who do not interfere with all the injunctions of Islam, such as the ordinary daily prayers, the prayers of the two I'ds, etc.; but do authorize departure from a few of the injunctions of Islam, such as the permission to inherit the property of his Mahometan ancestor to one who changes his religion (being that of his ancestors) and becomes a Christian - is Dar-ul-Islam or not? Answer the above, for which God will reward you."

"A. All praises are due to the Almighty, who is the Lord of all the Creation.

"O Almighty, increase my knowledge! "As long as even some of the peculiar observances of Islam prevail in it, it is Dar-ul-Islam.