ANECDOTE OF HAVELOCK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 182, 2 August 1880, Page 4

ANECDOTE OF HAVELOCK.

In 1857, when, like a wave, the spirit of mutiny was spreading over the continent, an officer was seen standing, with bead uncovered, beside an open grave in one of the cemeteries in Calcutta. He had como to p*y the last office of respect to an REBistant raißEionery, whose social status had been much inferior to those of European birth Rod blood. The soldier was the only man to whom all eyes were turned at this terrible crisis, aod ia a few days be was expecting to hasten to tb' scene of action. He was overwhelms with work, and every moment wa-o - consequence. "If it bad beer funeral of some great gun, * «£ «« soldier to hU old pastor, ±««ew Leslie, «I could have found rjwdred excuses to have kept away bat Mm man was faithful cud tru; eDd » J e ™"c thought little of fo'^f »«ouAneee of hiß% e ech and iV color of hie Sin f lfeeliWprivile? tOih | c .! a tecr over his grave .ibe soldier we Havelock, for who" « a few , week \ a ■ na . ' „ n/1 a i who will ever be nation mourned^ retarded as ojg safety of ouf IndUn of hia lime. t in c ] oar )y-defined scieatiempire w,ouiiiaiii rQl) geß, serf-bound ~^|J"or fortified rivere ; but in the /"•^eof our laws and the Christian g p .-it of those who ruleover the people. \ j was a common saying after the Indian diutiny. that •" the saints saved tha empire." Certainly the heroism of the Havelocks, Outrams, Lawrences, Nicholsons,' Hodgsons, and others, will ever form one of the noblest pages in English history. At one time it was considered the safest policy to ignore Christianity, and this feeling more or less permeated every department of the eervice. Happily those days are numbered with the past. GovernorsGeneral and Commandors-in-Chief have felt it an honor to bear their tebtimony to the fact that missionaries have eyer been the truest frienda to progress and civilisation , and the best supporters of the British rule in India. If every branch of the service were canvassed, it would be found that the men who have been faithful to their convictions have best secured the confidence of the people. The man with no religion is an anomaly to the natives of India, which they cannot understand, and they significantly ask, " If he be not a Hindoo, Buddhist, Mahommedan, or Christian, what is he?" Half a century ago there were so few God-fearing men that a child could count them. " I can remember," said a colonel in our hearing, "when there were but three Christian officers in the whole of the Madras Presidency." But there is scarcely a regiment now in which there is not one or more ready for every good word and work. There is scarcely a solitary missionary now

that has not to rejoice over the countenance and help ne receives from his own country men — Sunday at Home,