LECTURE BY THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2501, 21 February 1871, Page 2

LECTURE BY THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

Last evening, according to announcement, the Lord Bishop of Auckland gave a lecture at the Masonic Hall on his personal reminiscences of wanderings in India. His Honor Mr Justice Chapman was hi the chair. After a few introductory remarks, his Lordship described the Himalaya country, the plains of which, he said, when irrigated are so rich as frequently to produce three crops annually. Provisions in consequence are very cheap, and because of the large population wages are very low; lOOlhs. of barley being obtained for about 2s, and everything else in proportion. Wages were from .‘hi to 6d a day for ordinary day laborers. But against that wei’e few expences, house rent being a mere trifle, very few clothes being required, and a man could live on lid a day. Young ensigns often astonished their friends in England when they gave an account of the number of servants they kept; but that was accounted for from the fact that one servant would only attend to one kind of work. The division of labor

was such that a man who put dinner on the table would not wash clothes; the man who fed a horse not clean it, ami so on. When he was in India, for twelve shillings, a mouth all the washing required by one person could be done ; and as light clothes were commonly worn washing was very hj ea vy. One of the chief difficulties of the missionaries in India, arose from the vast number of different dialects spoken, as well as the different manners and customs. If they had to move up the country, a new language had to be learnt. It need not be imagined that because wages were low, servants were inefficient. Nothing astonished him more than tne genius displayed in cooking. Soups were obtained equal to any in London, and great ingenuity was displayed in converting one article into many dishes. He remembered a cook whose stock of poultry was reduced to one fowl, asking whether it should be served up as veal-cutlet, or roast duck. He went to India in 1857. He was surprised at the time that the Government, notwithstanding the peril to the lives of Europeans— women and children forwarded troops by the Caps of flood Hope, instead of through Egypt and by way of the ifed Sea, He little thought of going to India at the time, but being in London, the Secretary of Btate asked him if lie would go out as chaplain to the extra force despatched for the relief of Delhi and Lucknow, and he consented. Each Highland regiment had its own presbyterian chaplain, but the English troops had one clergyman to three or four regiments. He reached the army just before the capture of Lucknow. The army had to pass through the beautiful country of Rohilcund, and after that he went to the Punjaub, whence he travelled to the Vale of Cashmere. During the war, nothing struck him more than the patience with which the soldiers bore their wounds. They had no comfortable beds to lie on only a great-coat or a blanket. One jialace was made use of as a hospital, where they were ranged in rows along the sides of the large rooms, sometimes to the number of thirty or forty. They lay side by side ; and some times they said the kindest thing that could be done would be to put them to death. If they happened to be wounded on the march, they were carried in doohlics—a kind of palanquin--on the shoulders of four men, ami the motion would frequently render a wound fata! that would have been of trilling importance with proper accommodation. But they bore their sufferings like men. The division to wlrch he was attached comprised the 42nd, 7Sfch, and 93rd Highlanders, be sides two reaimeuts of European cavalry, and several Indian regiments, and a large park of artillery. They were marching about 200 miles up the country, at about ten miles a-day. To show that the popular notion of the Indians declining to fight with Europeans was a mistake, he mentioned that this line force received a check from a trifling fort defended by a handful of men, and they bm ied before it Adrian Hope and 110 officers and men. His Lordship described the funeral and the arrangements made to avoid clashing of forms of service, and made some remarks showing that a great change has taken place in the system of promotion, as evinced by Lord Napier of Magdala being appointed Comma mler-iu-Chief in lieu of the Duke of Cambridge. After glancing at the habits of Europeans in India, describing howthe troops were on parade at 5.30 a.m., the citizens taking their gallop from that hour to 7 a.in., tiffin at S or 9, and breakfast at noon, with some interesting information as to the improvements in the status and conduct of the soldiery through greater attention to their comfort, amusement, and instruction by the Government, his Lordship gave some interesting information respecting the Vale of Cashmere. He showed that, because the Indian Government wanted money, on taking possession of the Punjaub, Cashmere was not included, because of a payment being made to the Government in lieu of one million rupees. He described the valley in glowing terms as being one of the most beautiful.and fertile'pots on the earth. It is waten d b ' the river Jhyleen, the ancient Hydaspes, and is res u-ted to by Europeans every year during the hot season. Not succeeding in establishing a missionary station there, arrangements were made with the Edinburgh Medical Missions to secure the services of Dr Helmslee, who went on a visit to Cashmere, and, by his tact and fervor, seemed very likely t l ' succeed. in the course of bis lecture, his Lordship made some interesting remarks on the effect of the railways of India in breaking down the barriers of caste. Hitherto, caste had been one of the greatest obstacles to the dissemination of Christianity ; but now a high-caste Brahmin prefers taking his scat in a thirdclass carriage, and sitting beside persons of lower caste, to paying first-class fare ; and all classes submit tamely to very unceremonious treatment from the European population, such as an impetus from tire foot ou the small of his back into a railway carriage. The extension of the system would be a great help to missionary work. At the close of the lecture, the Eev D. M. Stuart proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer, and expressed a request that he would give a lecture specially ou the state of missionary affairs in India. His Honor the Chairman did not think the motion needed a seconder.

It was carried by acclamation, as was also a vote of thanks to the Chairman.