The British Indian Government provides funds for army ecclesiastical services of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Romish forms, costing in the three presidencies about three lakhs of rupees. The British Government has not alienated revenue for the support of the religions of the country, but maintains what was alienated by their native predecessors. In some cases the land has been resumed and cash payments substituted ; but the grand result is as follows in the Madras Presidency: Payments in cash to native religious institutions, per annum, Rs. 8,68,000. The assessment of lands alienated, less quit-rent, equals Rs. 2,30,32,000. The total, therefore, is Rs. 3,20,00,000. This is exclusive of enormous grants of land revenue to Brahmans and others. In 1871 the total acreage for Hindu religious purposes was 1,347,000 acres, assessed at Rs. 22,23,100. The acreage for Mahomedan religious purposes was 137,000, with an assessment of Rs. 2,63,000. The acreage for Christian religious purposes was 2600 acres, and the assessments Rs. 5000. Consequently the total area and revenue alienated was little less than 1,500,000 acres, a,ssessed at twenty-flve lakhs.
On all the sea-coasts of the south and east of Asia, and on the great rivers, the people are largely fishers. Those along the coasts at Madras became Christians early ; indeed, from the southern out skirts of the town at St. Thome to its northern village of Ennore, nearly all the fishermen are earnest Christians of the Roman Catholic per suasion. The Koli tribe of fishers in Bombay are ' nearly all Christians, though they have occasion ally wavered. There is sornething remarkable in the circumstance of the fisher races being amongst the earliest and mast eager converts to Christianity in India,—so much so as to render it question able whether it be only an accidental coincidence, or the result of some permanent and predisposing cause. The Parawa, or fishermen of Cape Comorin, were the earliest proselytes of St. Francis Xavier ; and they have still a pride insalluding to the fact that they were the first, as tliey have since been the most faithful and abiding, of kis converts. It was by the fishermen of Manaar that he was invited to Ceylon in 1544 ; and, notwithstanding the martyrdom inflicted by the raja of Jafna, and the persecution with which they were visited by the Dutch, that district and the adjacent boundary of the Wanny has to the present day been one of the strongholds of the Roman Catholics in Ceylon. Amongst the Parawa, or fisher caste of the Singhalese, the Roman Catholics have at all times been most successful in their efforts to proselytize.
There were many Christians in Ceylon in the 9th century, and in the 16th century St. Francis Xavier is said to have converted the inhabitants of Manaar. The king of Jafnapatam put 600 of the converts to death; to revenge which, Constan tine de Braganza in A.D. 1560 invaded Jafnapatam, destroyed many villages, and is said to have carried off and destroyed the celebrated tooth of Buddha. Throughout the entire of the British territories in Southern Asia are small bodies of Nestorian, Armenian, Rornish, and Protestant Christians, of Persian, Armenian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, English, and French descent. The census of 1871 showed 896,658 of Christians in British India, as under :— Bengal, . . . 90,763 Berar, . . . . 903
Assam, . . . . 1,947 Mysore, . . . . 25,676 N.W. Provinces, . 22,196 Coorg, . . . . 2,410 Ajmir, . . . . 249 British Burma, . 52,299 (hub , 7,761 Madras, . . . . 533,760 Panjab, . . . 22,154 Bombay, . . . 126,063 Central Provinces, 10,477 Besides these, there are numbers in the native States of India, and the total may be about million. The CEcumenical Council at Rome, how ever, obtained a statement of the numbers in India of the clergy and professing Catholics. It showed an archbishop of Goa, 19 bishops, who are vicars apostolic, and 815 priests, besides the clergy resi dent in the island of Goa ; and the laity were stated at 1,076,102. The Protestant missions of India, Burma, and Ceylon are carried on by 35 missionary societies, in addition to local agencies, and in 1873 employed 606 foreign missionaries in 3022 principal and subordinate stations. The Romish clergy of British India are almost fully occupied by the duties relating to their respective charges, but the Protestant missionaries are zealous educationalists and propagandists. In India in 1871-72 there were 25 Protestant mission presses. During the ten years between 1852 and 1862 they issued 1,634,940 copies of the Scriptures, chiefly single books • and 8,604,033 tracts, school-books, and books fior general circulation. During the ten years between 1862 and 1872 they issued 3410 new works in 30 languages, and circulated 1,315,503 copies of books of Scripture, 2,375,040 school-books, and 8,750,129 Christian books and tracts. But throughout the S. and S.E. of Asia, and in the Archipelago, there may, in the latter third of the 19th century, be about ten millions of Christians, amongst about six hundred millions of Buddhists, Hindus, Mahomedans, and Shamanists, amongst Aryan, Semitic, Mongoloid, and Negro races. In proselytizing, much success has attended the efforts of the Portuguese and Spaniards in India and the Archipelago ; and the same may be said of the labours of Dr. 3Iason and other Baptist missionaries amongst the Karens, and ,other un civilised tribes of Burma ; also of those. of Bishop Caldwell amongst the Shanar and other ruder Tamil races of the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula ; and of others amongst the Kolarian and Dravidian races of the Central Provinces, and in the Chutia Nagpur province of Bengal. Ma homedans in S. Asia, of Arab and Persian and Moghul descent, adhere to the religious instruction of their childhood, and very few Hindus of Aryan descent have accepted the Christian doctrines. They have not, however, been quiescent, but, rejecting their own polytheist legends, they have been, from time to thne, following monotheistic reformers, and in the 19th century have been trying to construct, under a church, council, or society, bearing the designation of Bralimo Somaj, unrevealed code, in which they recognise a first principle and the teachings of morality. In British India, amongst Ilindu races, the educa tional efforts of the British Indian Government have been on the largest scale ; but over-education has unspiritualized the educational efforts of Chris tian missionaries, and created a desire for mere worldly advancement, which has killed in some hopeful cases the inner life.