Missionaries, Rebellion and Proto-Nationalism: James Long of Bengal 1814-87 9780700710287

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1 The Making of a Missionary, 1814–1840
2 Bengal: Years of Transition, 1840–1850
3 Emily Orme, Marriage and Life at Thakurpukur
4 Vernacular Education, 1850–1861
5 The Indigenous Churches and the Problems of Growth, 1850–1861
6 Vernacular Literature, Intellectual and Social Activities, 1850–1861
7 The Indigo Planting Controversy, 1850–1860
8 The Aftermath
Nil Darpan, Trial and Imprisonment
Reactions to the Nil Darpan Case
9 Last Years in Bengal, 1865–1872
10 To Russia With Love, 1863–1876
11 Long, Missionaries and Orientalism
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

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Plate 1 James Long, at the age of 49, two years after his imprisonment in Calcutta (C.M.S. photographic collection)

Missionaries, Rebellion and Proto-Nationalism

Centre of South Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London LONDON STUDIES ON SOUTH ASIA 1. Caste and Christianity D. B. Forrester 2. British Policy Towards the Indian States S.R. Ashton 3. The Assamese A C. Cantlie 4. Dacca S.u. Ahmed 5. Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka j. W. Rogers 6. Hindu and Christian in South-East India G.A Oddie 7. Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India AA Powell 8. A Place for Our Gods M. Nye 9. Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India I. Talbot 10. John Bullion's Empire G. Balachandran

11. Landlord Power and Rural Indebtedness in Colonial Sind D. Cheeseman 12. Krsna's Round Dance Reconsidered H.R.M. Pauwels 13. Ancient Rights and Future Comfort P. Robb 14. Tibet and the British Raj A McKay 15. Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India S. Bandyopadhyay 16. Missionaries, Rebellion and Proto-Nationalism G.A Oddie

Missionaries,

Rebellion and Proto-Nationalism James Long of Bengal 1814-87

Geoffrey A. Oddie

I~ ~~o~;!~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First Published in 1999 by Curzon Press Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1999 GeoHrey A. Oddie

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 13: 978-0-700-71028-7 (hbk)

Contents

List of Illustrations Introduction

IX Xl

1 The Making of a Missionary, 1814-1840

1

2 Bengal: Years of Transition, 1840-1850

18

3 Emily Orme, Marriage and Life at Thakurpukur

35

4 Vernacular Education, 1850-1861

40

5 The Indigenous Churches and the Problems of Growth, 1850-1861

68

6 Vernacular Literature, Intellectual and Social Activities, 1850-1861

82

7 The Indigo Planting Controversy, 1850-1860

101

8 The Aftermath Nil Darpan, Trial and Imprisonment Reactions to the Nil Darpan Case

118

9 Last Years in Bengal, 1865-1872 10 To Russia With Love, 1863-1876

143

11 Long, Missionaries and Orientalism

180

Notes Bibliography Index

198 245 255

vii

162

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Illustrations

Frontispiece:

Plate 1 James Long, at the age of 49 Between pages 130 and 131:

Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate

2 3 4 5 6

Map: Central Asia Map: Principle Mission Stations of Bengal, 1840 A Native School in India Scene in a Krishnagar Village The Revd Henry Venn

ix

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Introduction

The Revd James Long was one of the most remarkable Protestant missionaries to work in India in the nineteenth century. Sent to Calcutta under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society at the age of 26 in 1840, he devoted the rest of his life to developing what he passionately believed were the best interests of all sections of the Bengali population including the forgotten poor and oppressed. Best known for the part he played in the indigo planting controversy, an episode which landed him in prison in 1861, he is also increasingly recognized for his contribution to the development of Bengali vernacular education, vernacular literature, historical studies and sociology. While some of his activities, such as his exposure of the indigo system and outspoken attacks on European racial prejudice, were deeply resented by the European planters and their supporters, he quickly became and has remained ever si nce, something of a saint and hero in the heart and memory of the Indian people. As we shall argue, the reaction to Long's imprisonment was quite extraordinary and undoubtedly gave a fillip to an embryonic sense of national feeling. In an obituary written in 1887 the British newspaper, The Athenaeum, claimed, with some justitkation, that the name of 'Padre Long' was still held in reverence by 'millions in Northern India'.! In more recent years, Bengali writers reviewing his published works have not only stressed what they sec as Long's contribution to Bengali culture and self-understanding, but also his more personal qualities of compassion for suffering humanity and his selfless service.~ Nationalist writers have been in the forefront of those who have acclaimed him as a true friend of the people. N.S. Bose reminded his readers that, as a result of the indigo disturbances and their aftermath, 'Harish [Harishchandra Mukherjee, editor of the Hindu Patriot I and Long became household names in the country':) and R.C. Majumdar declared that the planters succeeded in venting their wrath on 'a popular missionary, distinguished for his knowledge of, and interest in, the language, literature and people of Bengal'.4 But it is not only the nationalists who in recent times have proclaimed Long as one of the great heroes of the Indian people. One of the more remarkable signs of his continuing popularity is the fact that the Calcutta Municipality controlled hy a Marxist Government (the C.P.I.M.) have renamed one of their streets 'James Long Sarani'. xi

MISSIONARIES, REBELLION AND PROTO-NATIONALISM

As several scholars have noted, there is no full-length biography of Long. Indian scholars in particular who have published some account of his work and activities have been handicapped by a lack of access to archival material in England and other sources in the Irish Republic. It is hoped, therefore, that the present study, which is based very largely on this material, will shed further light especially on Long's background, philosophy and motivation. What do we know about his family and how important was his background, early life, education and experience in southern Ireland? Why did he become a missionary and what was he hoping to achieve? What were his aims and motives? What was his vision and how far did he change his views during the period from 1840 to 1872? Who were his closest friends and how significant was Emily Orme in Long's life and career in India until she died in 1867? Why did he go to Russia in 1863 and spend so much time there after his retirement in 1872? Several commentators have detected what they seem to think were inconsistencies or ambiguities in Long's activities and this has led them to wonder whether Long can be regarded as a typical missionary or indeed a missionary at all! This was the same question that bothered some of his contemporaries - especially those who had a more conventional view of Christian mission or who did not know him very well. For reasons which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter, the question of Long's bona fides as a missionary were raised by some of his colleagues in 1859 and, since then, other contemporary observers and some historians have also raised doubts about how far he was consciously engaged in missionary or evangelistic activity. Commenting on Long's approach, The Athenaeum, for example, remarked that 'Mr Long's enthusiasm as a social reformer, and his devotion to work that he regarded as a more essential part of Christianity than the preaching of doctrinal religion, brought him into some disfavour'. 5 In a more recent comment, P. Thankappan Nair appears to qualify his view of Long as a missionary by placing the word 'missionary' in inverted commas,6 while in his introduction to Long's Five Hundred Questions, Mahadev Prasad Saha contrasts Long's devotion to the people's improvement with the attitude of some other missionaries, one of whom, according to Saha, laid down that a Christian was not justified in labouring or even wishing for the temporal benefit of the natives 'who are children of wrath, and should be treated accordingly'.7 In his work on the indigo disturbances, Blair King raises similar questions when he claims that Long's outspoken attacks on the evils of the indigo system were very different from the expressed views of the English missionaries who were anxious to avoid criticizing the planters, many of whom were fellow-countrymen. 8 It is one of the arguments of this study that in one sense at least Long was not very different from many of his colleagues, that at least initially, he was a typical Evangelical missionary with faith and convictions little different from that of other Evangelicals, and that he was not alone, even among English missionaries, in advocating reform of the indigo system xii

INTRODUCTION

and other changes which he and many of his colleagues believed would be conducive to the welfare of the Bengali population. Yet in spite of these similarities, especially in aims and objectives, the outcome of Long's activity and the events associated with his career were very different from those associated with the work and efforts of other missionaries. It was Long and he alone who had become a folk hero and was lionized by all sections of the Indian population. Another objective of this biography is therefore to tease out some of those factors which help to explain what was different and exceptional as well as what was similar in Long's career in comparison with the career and circumstances of other Protestant missionaries. What factors determined Long's distinctive path and explain the legend that he became? Any attempt to understand Long, his relationships and the causes he espoused, must, of course, involve an analysis of the society and circumstances in which he lived. There is a sense in which every biography is about the person in his or her times. A study of Long is especially important in this respect as he not only had views on an enormous range of topics but was also actively involved with government officials, Indian elites and with many other classes in the Indian population. A study of his career, based amongst other things on his unpublished correspondence, as well as on his published works, is therefore especially useful as a window which can provide significant insights into some of the complexities of European and Indian society in Bengal during the period of Long's residence in India. A study of his childhood and early life involves some knowledge and understanding of social factors and economic, religious and educational developments in southern Ireland in the early nineteenth century while, even a brief survey of his visits to Russia, raises questions about the complexities of British views of the reforms in Russia and of Russian expansion in Central Asia in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. James Long was a prolific writer who had implicit faith in the power of the written word. Perhaps more than most missionaries he had a widespread network of contacts and was involved in an extraordinary range of public issues. There is almost certainly further correspondence and other material lying in archives and elsewhere in India, Britain and even in Russia which the present writer has been unable to consult and consider for the present work. Furthermore, there will inevitably be further questions about Long, his relationships and activities, not discussed in this book, which others will want to raise and discuss. Hence the present work makes no claim to be a definitive study of Long's life and career. Rather it is hoped it will prove useful as an introduction and study which reveals something of the subject's passionate character, motivation, attitudes and importance, especially in Indian history.

• xiii

MISSIONARIES, REBELLION AND PROTO·NATIONALISM

Much though by no means all of what appears in Chapters 6 and 7 has been published in the author's work entitled Social Protest in India.' British Protestant Missionaries and Social Reforms, 1850-1900, Manohar, Delhi 1979. The great bulk of the work is, however, entirely original and is being published for the first time. Special thanks are due to many people. First and foremost is the late Professor Kenneth Ballhatchet, of the School of Oriental and Mrican Studies London, who inspired the original project and who felt that a biography of Long was many years overdue. Thanks are also due to archivists and librarians, especially to Richard Bingle and Martin Moir formerly of the India Office Library and Archives, to Rosemary Keen, for many years Archivist of the Church Missionary Archives in London, to Christine Penny, the current Archivist of the CMS archives which are located in Birmingham University Library and to Dr Raymond Refusse, Librarian and Archivist, Representative Church Body, Church of Ireland. I also wish to thank especially Professor Baron De of Calcutta for his insights and comments on the manuscript and many others for their help in a variety of different ways. These include Mr D. Begley and the Rev. John Dowse of Bandon, Dr John B. O'Brien of Cork University, Tim Cadogan of Cork County Library, the Rev. Norman Taggart, Miss Jean Priest of Western Australia, colleagues in the Department of History, University of Sydney and others too numerous to mention but who played a part in making this enterprise possible. Last but not least comes my wife, to whom as companion, research assistant and proof reader lowe a great deal.

xiv

Chapter One

The Making of a Missionary, 1814-1840

James Long was born in Bandon in southern Ireland in 1814 - one year before the battle of Waterloo. He was the third child and eldest son of John and Anne Long who lived in the parish of Ballymodan, the young James being baptized at St. Peter's Ballymodan on the 4th June 1814.1 One of his two elder sisters Mary (three years older) was baptized at St. Peter's in June 1811 and Catherine, who was 15 months his senior, in the same church in March 1813. After James' birth there was a gap in the family until the birth of a third sister, Susan, in 1821, and two brothers, Mortlock, in 1824, and Edward in 1827.2 James, being the eldest son and ten years older than Mortlock, must therefore have been given considerable responsibility within the family. While we know next to nothing about James' sisters, there is more information available about his brothers. Mortlock who, unlike James, was baptized in the Methodist chapel, was 'converted' at the age of 15 at a Wesleyan Methodist revival meeting in Bandon in 1839.:3 He became a highly respected and influential Methodist minister working as a pastor and preacher in different circuits in northern and southern Ireland until a few years before his death in 1894.4 Edward the younger brother, 13 years James' junior, became a Captain in the Merchant Service. Some of his descendants are now living in Perth, Australia." Bandon, or Bandon Bridge, as it was commonly called, is situated in picturesque countryside on the banks of the Bandon River 17 miles west of Cork and 137 miles from Dublin. It was built and fortified by the Elizabethan adventurer and landlord Richard Boyle 6 and colonized by Protestant settlers from the south and west of England in the early seventeenth century. It is possible, though by no means certain, therefore, that these early Protestant settlers included among their number antecedents of the Long family living in Bandon in the nineteenth century. When James was born, Bandon had the distinction of being one of the largest Protestant towns in Ireland and a centre of the textile manufacturing industry. One of the best descriptions of the town during this period is in Pigot and Co., Commercial Directory of Ireland, Scotland

MISSIONARIES, REBELLION AND PROTO-NATIONALISM

and four of the Northern Counties of England, published According to the author of the section on Bandon;

III

1820.

The river divides the town, in which there are two churches ... two Roman Catholic chapels, two Methodist, and a Presbyterian chapel, a female school of Industry, a Charity school for Protestant boys; two Charity schools for Catholics, one for boys, the other for girls; a fever hospital, and a Dispensary, a Court house, and a Bridewell [jail]; extensive, new, and very eligible shambles, on an eminence without the town, circular in form, very spacious, with an excellent contrivance to admit fresh air into each stall, and in the centre of the area, possessing a large public pump. Near to these shambles, is a barrack for cavalry, and a Savings' Bank. In the neighbourhood is a Salmon fishery, and a mile from the town is Castle Bernard, the seat of Lord Bandon. Bandon is a borough, and very considerable market town. . .. There are several extensive manufactures carried on here, giving full employment to the numerous inhabitants, viz. that of linen, particularly tickens, cottons, corduroys, etc. woolcombing, stuffs, also blankets and coarse woollen cloth. Blue dying is carried on extensively, that colour being a favourite one with the country people, who manufacture their own frize and send it to the town to be dyed. There are also extensive flour mills, a very large brewery, and eligible tan-yards; all of which are carried on with great spirit, to the credit of their respective proprietors, and the advantage of the whole town. 7 The days of prosperity suggested by this description were, however, already very nearly over, and the young James spent his early life in a town affected increasingly by social problems and economic decline. The chief reason for this was the growing pressure of competition from larger production centres, and especially from the textile districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as a slackening off in domestic consumption. s The population of Bandon was in steady decline, from 10,179 in 1821, to 9,917 in 1831, to 9,049 in 1841 9 (one year after James began his missionary work in Calcutta). The people most adversely affected by the downturn in the local economy in the 1820's and afterwards were weavers. A local newspaper, The Constitution: or Cork Advertiser, reported, in February 1826, that a meeting had been held in Bandon 'to concert measures to meet the distress which is now spreading among the operative Weavers in that Town'.l0 It stated that there were 1,100 weavers idle in Bandon and that even greater numbers of the women and children had been thrown out of employment. Some months later the same paper reported that 'many hundreds' of weavers had, by that stage, been reduced to 'actual starvation' and that the 'calamity' was becoming general 'among all classes of tradespeople'. 11 That this was not just a temporary phenomenon is indicated by further 2

THE MAKING OF A MISSIONARY, 1814-1840

reports in the press and also in evidence elsewhere. In June 1830 The Constitution, reporting on the 'Great and Continuing Distress at Bandon', declared that: The state of extreme distress to which the manufacturing classes in the town of Bandon are now reduced makes it necessary that the attention of the public be directed to it ... The condition of the town of Bandon they rthe relief committee] believe to be at present peculiar - no other district probably in the United Kingdom, either manufacturing or agricultural, suffering so much distress in proportion to its population. 12 Further evidence of widespread distress in Bandon during the period when James was a boy is contained in Thomas Sheahan's graphic account of his visit to the district in about 1825. Describing his journey on the road from Bandon to Clonakilty he wrote that it was impossible for a stranger to pass this western road without being 'horror-struck' at 'the droves of ragged boys', whose sole employment was to follow the mail, perhaps for miles, in expectation of a half penny from a traveller. 'Youths of thirteen or fourteen years of age', he continued, 'who in England may be earning competent wages, are here seen pursuing this degrading and melancholy occupation'. 13 Commenting on the long-term effects of the slump and depression in Bandon at an election rally in 1832 (when James was a young man of 18) Richard Dowden, a radical, remarked: I think I recollect a respectable population of tradesmen among you. I think I have now strongly in my thought the scenes of humble opulence which surrounded my birth-place Old Gallows-Hill Street before the change of times came. They were Weavers able to earn an independence. Three of four looms going in a house gave the means of moderate comforts a Bandon Weaver had then, I think bread once a day, and meat twice or even three times a week at his table, and then what decency, what morals, what independence surrounded them. A Bandon weaver was then an object of attention:-respectful but not slavish, independent but not insolent, he maintained his humble dignity, and in his own sphere, needed not to hang his head, or bend his knee to the denizens of the Castle. What are they now? Beggars in the city of Cork many of them begging halfpenny men are now, who once from their honest industry, gave relief to others. But is it your artisan class only who are destroyed by Tory government and Tory wars? Ask your decayed manufacturers as many a deserted loft - call aloud to them as I do now in this Court, 'Where is the trade of Bandon where? And echo will answer where?'14 The young James was privileged enough to be sheltered from this type of insecurity, poverty and distress. If John Long, the father of James, is the

3

MISSIONARIES, REBELLION AND PROTO-NATIONALISM

same John Long who resided in Shannon Street and is mentioned in connection with the Bandon Parliamentary elections of 1832 (as seems highly likely) then James was born into a comparatively well-to-do and privileged family. John Long who voted for the Tory candidate, Viscount Bernard of Castle Bernard, was described (along with several other voters) as a 'writing clerk' and in order to vote must have occupied a house (or other building) of the annual value of 10 pounds a year.15 Thus like other voters who were not necessarily in prestigious occupations, John Long belonged to a highly privileged class comprising 2.8% of the borough's population - men who had sufficient real estate to qualify for the vote. 16 But another quite independent indicator of the comparative affluence and economic status of the Long family is the school James attended from 1826 to 1831. This was the Bandon Endowed School, the most exclusive educational institution in Bandon. The charges, eight guineas per annum for day scholars such as James, were well beyond the means of the great majority of the population. 17 This was a sum of money equivalent to what skilled labourers could earn in the Cork region by working for about two months, six days a week. 18

Nothing is known about what James did or where and ifhe went to school prior to April 1826 when at the age of 12 he enrolled at Bandon School. In the voluminous correspondence in the C.M.S. archives, including letters to some of his closest friends, James was almost always reticent about his early life and experience. However, there is one memorable passage in his account of his travels on a tour from Calcutta to Delhi in 1853 when, noting the dangers of travel on the Grand Trunk Road, he recalled one of the more dramatic incidents in his life at the age of nine - an event which quite probably took place when he was on his way to catch the boat for the return crossing to the port of Cork: Well do we recollect having to travel from London to Bristol, in 1823, on the outside of a mail coach, on a cold November night, right glad to get a seat on any terms, and having the tedium of the way relieved by the guard's anecdotes of highwaymen's adventures on Hounslow Heath, while his full-charged brass blunderbuss showed that the danger had not altogether passed away. HI Perhaps here, in a rare glimpse into his childhood experience, is the later James Long, not only missionary. but intrepid traveller.

When James was 12 he was one among 50 or so boys enrolled in the newly established Bandon School which was under the direction of the headmaster the Rev. John Browne A.M. (Late Scholar of Trinity College, 4

THE MAKING OF A MISSIONARY,

1814-1840

Dublin).2o The school, endowed by 'His Grace the Duke of Devonshire', was pleasantly situated, a short distance from the town. It opened in premises attached to the then recently constructed Georgian dwellings on the north-western corner of Devonshire Square. The Square, built by the 6th Duke of Devonshire (one of the six largest landowners in Great Britain and Ireland) was opened by the Duke in 1812 on one of his two visits to the town. 21 According to the school prospectus of 1826 (which was, of course, designed to impress prospective parents) the school-house was 'spacious', while a ball-court and 'extensive' playground were still being constructed. The aim of the school, advertised as a 'seminary for general education', was to qualify and prepare young 'gentlemen' for the University, the army and navy and mercantile pursuits: but 'the strictest attention' was also to be paid to morals and manners of the boys as, according to the headmaster, 'it should be the object of education, to make them Gentlemen as well as Scholars'22 - an object which in the case of James Long does not appear to have been entirely fulfilled, at least to the satisfaction of the Principal of the C.MB. training college which Long attended some years later when the Principal compared his manners unfavourably with those of another student, a Mr Rogers, who was also being considered for the position of missionary in Calcutta. Compared with the syllabus of many other secondary schools in Great Britain and Ireland during this period the Bandon School programme was remarkably broad and 'modern', though not all pupils did or could do all available subjects. In 1826, the year in which the school commenced, the list of subjects included Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and English languages; Euclid, Algebra, Logic; Arithmetic, Book-keeping, Reading, Writing, History and Geography. The Headmaster was also pleased to announce that his brother, Stephen Browne, would be 'Superintendent of the Science Department' and that 'quite independently of the zeal he must naturally feel for the success of this establishment with which he was so intimately connected', he had proved his qualifications by obtaining 'SEVERAL' mathematical premiums in College. 23 In addition to these basics, appropriate and necessary for the education of 'gentlemen' was the added advantage that the school would provide special tuition 'under separate charges' for personal accomplishments viz. dancing, fencing, drawing, etc. The first half yearly examinations were held in December 1826, the names of the young 'gentlemen' who distinguished themselves being released to the local newspaper a few days later. Long was 4th in the list followed by 4 others in Latin Grammar, 2nd in the list of 5 in the History of Rome, 11th in Geography and 3rd in English Grammar - results which suggested that at least initially he was not doing especially well. 24 In subsequent years, however, his position in the order of merit lists steadily improved. In December 1829, for example, he was probably the best student in the school in Greek. He was first in the list of four in the study

5

MISSIONARIES, REBElLION AND PROTO-NATIONALISM

of Lucian and the Greek Testament and equal first in Greek Grammar. 25 He was also first in Arithmetic. Alongside a marked improvement in his academic performance was an increasing interest in studying the classics. He appears to have spent the last three semesters of his career at school concentrating on Greek and Latin writers and on Latin prose. 26 In his own account of his studies at Bandon School in his application for work as a missionary with the C.M.S. in 1838 he wrote that: I spent 6 years at an endowed classical school where besides all the branches of a liberal education, I studied in the school course the works of Virgil, Sallust, Terence, Juvenal, Livy, Horace, Lucian, Homer and Xenophon. 27 It was while studying at school that Long, together with a number of other young men, was 'converted' at a Wesleyan revival meeting in Bandon. 'The Gracious Spirit', wrote Long in 1838, 'was pleased some years since to open my mind to a sense of the dreadful corruption of my nature, he then drew my attention to Calvary as the only hope of sinners'.28 Revival meetings, such as those which were held in Bandon and conducted throughout Ireland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, were a manifestation of the broader Evangelical movement which had a profound effect on social and religious thought and activity in the United Kingdom and North America, and which also provided much of the impetus for nineteenth century Protestant missionary activity in India, Africa, the Pacific and other parts of the non-Western world. Like Methodism, with which it had much in common, the Evangelical 'revival', as it was sometimes called, was partly a reaction against the prevalence of rationalism and deism and laxities in belief and practice in the Church of England in the eighteenth century. As opposed to many in the Church, including nominal adherents, Evangelicals stressed the importance of 'real' or 'vital' Christianity. They preached what they described as 'experimental' religion, religion of the heart and will as well as of the mind, and possessed an all-consuming and passionate conviction that through their own 'conversion' they had discovered, or rather 'experienced', the key to salvation in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The basic premise of the movement, which was influenced by the growth of Pietism in Europe, was belief in the total depravity and sinfulness of men and women and the need, not merely of knowing something about God, but of salvation through reliance upon Him. Their central teaching, a reaffirmation of a Reformation and Puritan principal, was that salvation comes through faith in the merit of Jesus Christ; or to put it another way, in the efficacy of his suffering and atonement on the cross.29 The experience of new birth or 'conversion' was seen as part of the process of being justified or saved through faith; many a sinner, like John 6

THE MAKING OF A MISSIONARY, 1814-1840

Wesley, feeling 'strangely warmed' as they experienced a deeply felt assurance that Christ had destroyed their sin and saved them from 'the law of sin and death'. According to Evangelical doctrine, salvation such as this did not come about through work or the excellence of what one could achieve, but through the grace of God freely given. The sinner, once having recognized that his or her sins were forgiven, was thereby set free to respond to God's love in whatever way he or she chose, through good works, missionary service, or in some other way, the individual striving gradually to attain a behaviour nearer and nearer to that of Christian perfection. These teachings, it should be emphasized, were not understood as being purely theoretical, but were seen more as an attempt to verbalize what Evangelicals claimed they had felt and experienced in the course of their own spiritual journey. Especially powerful within the Evangelical movement was the fear as well as love of God. 3D Life in this world for the Evangelical believer was a field of battle, a staging-post, during which time one was tried and tested. Still ahead, though perhaps approaching all too quickly, was the awful Day of Judgment, when God, who was a God of Wrath as well as a God of Love, would separate sinners and saints - when those who had not been saved through faith or belief in Christ, or who had in some way 'fallen short', would be condemned to an everlasting punishment. The threat of this appalling possibility not only produced in some a state of gloom and anxiety, but was a powerful incentive for evangelism both at home and overseas. 31 Just as faith in Christ had saved one's own soul, so the individual felt compelled to preach the way of escape and salvation to others. That religious issues such as these were of some concern within Long's family becomes clearly apparent from the way in which his parents, John and Anne Long, were becoming more closely linked with Methodism. As has been mentioned, the first four children (including James) were baptized in St. Peter's Ballymodan during the period from 1811 to 182l. Mortlock and Edward were, however, baptized in the Methodist chapel Mortlock in 1824, three years after Susan's baptism in St. Peter's. This suggests that sometime during the period from 1821 to 1824 John and Anne Long made a definite decision to be more closely associated with the Methodists. That John Long became a Methodist is confirmed in another source, namely Mortlock's obituary in the Minutes of Conference of the Methodist Church of Ireland where the author not only stated that Mortlock was 'favoured with a godly training', but that his father was 'a highly acceptable Class Leader and Local Preacher'. a2 It would be a mistake, however, to over-estimate the differences between Anglicans and Methodists in Ireland during this period. There is very clear evidence that Wesleyan Methodists in particular still liked to think of themselves as members of the established church. In their report on the results of an enquiry into the state of religion and education in 7

MISSIONARIES, REBELLION AND PROTO-NATIONALISM

Ireland the Commissioners appointed by the House of Commons to undertake the investigation pointed out that the numbers of the established church in Ireland included a considerable number of Wesleyan Methodists who attended church at their own place of worship, but who considered themselves in communion with the Established Church and wanted to be classified with that body. What was true for Ireland as a whole was also true for Bandon where Methodists and members of the established church were not differentiated in official statistics. 33 Methodism came to Ireland with John Wesley who visited Bandon on no fewer than seventeen occasions between 1749 and 1789. 34 Bandon became one of the most important centres of Wesleyan preaching and evangelistic activity, the 'awakening' and revival meeting which attracted Long and others and which took place sometime in the winter of 1828-29, being (as mentioned above) merely one in a number of such emotionally charged meetings in Bandon and throughout 'the circuit' in the early nineteenth century. The preacher, the Rev. Robert Jessop, who had some success at revival meetings elsewhere may have been unusually persuasive, but one of the other things about this meeting which made it somewhat different from Methodist rallies which had taken place on many former occasions was the tense political and religious context in which it occurred. It coincided with a sudden increase in Protestant fears and anxiety over the issue of Catholic emancipation. Alarmed by the victory of Daniel O'Connell