CHAPTER V

Summary

The hostility to the mission, which had lulled for ten months, was revived on the arrival of Lord Minto as Governor-General. He was a man of classical tastes and cultivated mind, and anxious to give every encouragement to literary undertakings. But with regard to the evangelisation of the heathen, his views did not appear to differ from those of his great Whig leader, Mr Fox, who had declared in Parliament that he considered all schemes of proselytism wrong in themselves, and productive in most cases of abuse and political mischief. Unhappily for the Serampore missionaries, the first intelligence which met him on his arrival at Madras, on his way to Calcutta, was that of the Vellore mutiny. At that presidency he imbibed the prevailing opinion that it was to be attributed to an injudicious tampering with the religious prejudices of the natives. This impression was confirmed on reaching Calcutta, where the anti-missionary party assured him that the most imminent peril must attend any interference with these prejudices by whatever agency and in whatever form it might be attempted. An indefinite dread of the danger which threatened the empire from this source took complete possession of his mind, at a time when he was necessarily obliged to lean on the opinions of others; and an opportunity was soon presented for the development of these feelings.