1~-ree. Ch L>-rc^U - - _ 
 
 L . 
 
 I ‘tl'SL 
 
 Jfiee CI)urc|) of ^cotlanU. 
 
 - 0 - 
 
 STATEMENT by Foreign Missions and Livingstonia 
 Committees relative to Reports on the Blan- 
 TYRE Mission of the Established Church of 
 Scotland which were submitted to Commission 
 OF ITS General Assembly on 2d March i88i. 
 
 The Reports of Mr. Pringle and Dr. Rankin, on painful events 
 which have occurred at Blantyre, render it necessary for the Foreign 
 Missions and Livingstonia Committees of the Free Church to make 
 a statement to the public. Those Reports contain allegations with 
 respect to the procedure of Livingstonia Mission agents during the 
 time when they were serving the Established Church at Blantyre, 
 and also with respect to the practice at Livingstonia itself. The 
 object is to impose on the Livingstonia Mission and its agents the 
 primary responsibility for what subsequently took place at Blantyre. 
 It becomes the duty of the Free Church Committees to direct 
 attention to materials w'hich ought to be kept in view in judging of 
 the allegations thus made. 
 
 The Committees have no remarks to offer on the Report of 
 the Special Committee, or on the Resolutions of the Commission of 
 the General Assembly of the Established Church. 
 
 The statements referred to in the Reports are the following, 
 which will be found, at— 
 
 Page 17, case 7, from centre of paragraph: ^ At the time of the 
 murder there were present at Blantyre^ from Livingstonia^ Dr. Laws 
 and some others., who assisted m the first inqtiiries, and expressed 
 their views as to suitable punishment, i.e. capital ptinishment. At 
 the time of the execution, these visitors had left again, so that the final 
 responsibility rests with the Blantyre people themselves.'' 
 
2 
 
 Page 2 1, case 7, from line 15 : ‘ The day following the execution, 
 the Livingstonia party arrived, includmg Dr. Laws and Mr. Stewart, 
 and they approved of all that was done.’’ 
 
 Page 29, par. 3 : ‘ The later acts of the Blantyre Mission {since 
 Mr. Macdonald's arrival in fitly 1878) have not the character of 
 a new or separate policy, but are the continuation of a system 
 already begun by Mr. James Stewart, and it is believed carried 
 out elsewhere.' 
 
 Page 52, line 4 : ‘ The Livingstonian rulers at Blantyre of course 
 originated this system.' Line 21 : '•Further there is an excuse for 
 our own Committee not knowing sooner and more fully about this 
 system that was being followed, seeing that Blantyre was being 
 managed by the head of the Livingstonia Mission.' 
 
 It is to be observed that these charges are advanced by two 
 gentlemen who did not communicate with Dr. Laws and obtain 
 his evidence, but accepted statements from parties who had to 
 clear themselves. 
 
 The connection of the Free Church of Scotland with the Blantyre 
 Mission began in this way. Having in May 1875 taken out the 
 first agent of the Established Church, and aided him until he 
 founded its Blantyre Mission, the Livingstonia missionaries of the 
 Free Church were suddenly summoned by him to take charge of 
 Blantyre also at the end of 1876. This the latter had hardly 
 agreed to do when their own staff was reduced by the death 
 of the Rev. Dr. Black. Nevertheless, sacrificing their own 
 proper work, they continued the service so unexpectedly de¬ 
 manded. 
 
 The three ‘ Livingstonian rulers' who rendered help at Blantyre, 
 when help was so much needed, were the Rev. Dr. James Stewart 
 of Lovedale, the originator of the Livingstonia Mission, the Rev. 
 Dr. Laws, and Mr. James Stewart, C.E. 
 
 The Committees feel it due to these gentlemen to state every¬ 
 thing in regard to their conduct of which they themselves are 
 aware. But while under deep obligations to all three, they 
 think it at the same time right to state that the Free Church 
 cannot be responsible for any acts done, or said to have been 
 done, by them while acting under other instructions than those 
 of the Free Church, and while reporting exclusively to another 
 authority. 
 
 A report of the events at Blantyre reached Lovedale, in South 
 Africa, whither Dr. Stewart had returned, and on the 5th 
 
January 1880 he addressed the following letter to Dr. MacRae, 
 Convener of the Blantyre Committee, in which he distinctly states 
 that he has always disapproved of flogging natives—had never 
 resorted to it himself, and emphatically condemns missionaries 
 taking into their own hands the power of life and death ;— 
 
 ‘ Lovedale, Alice, South Africa, 
 
 ^th January 1880. 
 
 ‘My dear Dr. MacRae, —From some reports that have reached me from 
 Blantyre and Livingstonia, in reference to some of the not very happy events 
 there, it would seem that my approval, or former practice, was quoted in their 
 defence. This may have been done by mere inadvertence and verbally. But 
 still I do not think it is fairly done, and I wish now to put myself right both 
 with your Committee and our own. 
 
 ‘ I have never approved of flogging, and in fifteen years among the natives 
 of South Africa have not only never had recourse to it, but have invariably pre¬ 
 vented it, even though urged by others to permit it to be done. This uniform 
 rule, which I have imposed upon myself and on all with whom I had* any con¬ 
 nection or over whom I had any control, is the best answer that can be given 
 to the statement referred to, probably made incautiously. 
 
 ‘ On another point in the administration of punishment in criminal cases, I 
 think also that my view has been misapprehended. It seems that the action 
 taken in a case of a man who attempted to kill his wife has been also quoted— 
 I do not say at home, but at Blantyre or at Livingstonia. 
 
 ‘ Now the real facts are these. During the night a man stabbed his wife 
 in several phaces, and fled. It was reported to me that he was lurking in the 
 woods behind the station at Livingstonia. The people were getting a little 
 alarmed, and it occurred to me also that he might be watching for an opportunity 
 to complete his purpose. A party was sent to search the neighbourhood, and 
 take him if he should be found, my object being to carry him back in the 
 steamer to the place from whence he came, and put him down there at the 
 island of Malere, or on the mainland opposite, where he would be looked after 
 by the slave-dealing chief from whom he fled. The orders given were not 
 to shoot unless they were attacked, and any man’s life was in real danger.” 
 Fortunately he was not to be found ; and though we afterwards heard of his 
 living at some distance, we thought it better to do nothing more in the matter. 
 
 ‘ My view, without any doubt, and my recommendation or advice would be, 
 that no mission should take the power of life and death into its hands, but 
 rather hand over the culprits to their own chiefs, if they have them, or deport 
 them out of the country if they have none. If a regular civil administration 
 were set up in the country, the case would be different. 
 
 ‘ I hope you will accept this letter in the spirit in which it is offered, of 
 straightforward explanation, for on the two points above referred to there ought 
 to be no dubiety.—With best wishes, yours very sincerely, 
 
 ‘James Stewart. 
 
 ‘ The Rev. Dr. MacRae.’ 
 
 It is therefore very strange that Dr. Rankin and Mr. Pringle 
 attempt to identify Dr. Stewart—even by implication—with the 
 
4 
 
 disastrous proceedings at Blantyre, which he so distinctly reiirobates. 
 The first case of flogging took place in August 1877, while Dr. 
 Stewart had left Blantyre fully seven weeks before that occurrence. 
 
 As to the Rev. Dr. Laws, in the following letter to the Secretary 
 of the Free Church Foreign Missions Committee, he points out 
 that while he was at Blantyre no case of flogging occurred, and 
 he repudiates responsibility for having sanctioned or approved the 
 execution of Manga. 
 
 ‘ Livingstonia, 2.0th September 1880. 
 
 ‘ . . . During the time I was in charge (of Blantyre) no punishment was 
 inflicted, unless it may have been a fine in cloth, or such like, of which I have 
 now no recollection. Regarding the initiation of any policy by us, the reception 
 of slaves and the settlement of villagers near Blantyre are the only things that 
 can be charged, and the punishment in Mr. Stewart’s time. My answer to 
 these is simply :— 
 
 ‘i. No written or printed instnictions were issued to the members of the 
 Blantyre Mission by their Committee on their leaving England. At any rate, I 
 never saw or heard of them. 
 
 ‘ 2. The reception of slaves and the settlement of villagers were duly reported 
 to their Committee by Dr. Macklin, and were approved of, as may be seen in the 
 Established Church Record. 
 
 ‘3. No letter disapproving of our procedure was ever received by I r. Stewart, 
 Mr. James Stewart, or myself—at least, I never heard of either of the former 
 having done so, and I never received a letter on the subject. 
 
 ‘ 4. Dr. MacRae’s letters to Dr. Macklin, so far as the latter informed us of 
 their contents, advocated and inculcated the establishment of a civil jurisdiction. 
 
 ‘ 5. This policy was advocated before the punishment of flogging was inflicted 
 by Mr. Stewart. 
 
 ‘ Even supposing a policy had been begun by us of which they disapproved, 
 this did not entail on them any necessity for carrying it on ; and it lay with the 
 Established Church Committee to imstruct Mr. Macdonald before he left in the 
 policy they wished carried out. In the above notes Dr. MacRae’s name appears 
 as representing the Committee of the Established Church, and responsible for 
 the communications sent. . . . 
 
 ‘ In the statement by the Foreign Mission Committee of the Established 
 Church to the General Assembly, as reported in the Ediuhurgh Coiiratit of 
 May 31st, 1880, there occurs a very misleading sentence:—“Anxious delibera¬ 
 tions had meantime been held, and every accessible authority consulted as to the 
 course which .should be followed in the event of their capture and conviction ; 
 and there was a general coneurrence in the eonclusion expressed by Dr. Laws, 
 that wilful murderers must be punished, and that with death.” This would give 
 the impression that at some meeting for discussing the subject I had formulated 
 the above statement. As I mentioned in a former letter, I was at Blantyre 
 when the murder was committed, but the perpetrator was unknown up to the 
 time of my leaving, but was supposed to be one of Kapeui’s people. There was 
 no meeting of the Blantyre staff during the time I was there for the discussion of 
 the case. One evening I remember of there being a conversation on the subject, 
 and it is probable that I may have expressed the opinion that wilful murder 
 
5 
 
 should he punished with death. For I have long held that a murderer ought to 
 be put to death; but I certainly have no recollection of having said that the 
 Blantyre missionaries or that we ought to put a murderer to death. 
 
 ‘ I suppose by this time Dr. Rankin will have arrived at Blantyre as com¬ 
 missioner, and that the first mail will tell me whether he is coming up here or 
 not. I wrote Mr. O’Neill (Consul), and expect by this mail to hear from him. 
 .Should he come up, I shall be most happy that he should make the most 
 searching and impartial inquiry into all my conduct both at Blantyre and at 
 Livingstonia. ‘ Robert Laws.’ 
 
 Mr. James Stewart happened to join the Livingstonia Mission, 
 as a volunteer, in February 1877, being permitted by the Govern¬ 
 ment of India, whom he had served as a covenanted engineer in 
 the Punjab for nine years, so to spend his furlough. After two 
 months at Livingstonia, he was at Blantyre from loth April to 6th 
 July along with the Rev. Dr. Stewart, and thereafter alone, beside 
 Dr. Macklin, till 5th November, when the Rev. Dr. Laws took 
 charge. He was an unpaid volunteer till January 1878, and the 
 Established Church, as well as the Free Church, enjoyed the 
 benefit of his gratuitous services till that time. In 1878 he was in 
 charge of Blantyre from February to July, when he handed over 
 the station to the Established Church’s new agent, the Rev. D. 
 Macdonald. The only instructions he received were indirectly 
 from Dr. MacRae, Blantyre convener, who inculcated, both before 
 and during his administration, the colonist policy of assuming 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction. 
 
 Mr, Stewart has in his letter to Mr. Murray (page 41 of Dr. 
 Rankin’s Report) explained the share which, as a volunteer, he 
 had in the management of the Blantyre Mission for a time when 
 the Mission was- in great straits ; but he all along acted under 
 the rules recognised and enforced at Blantyre by Dr. MacRae’s 
 instructions, and was in no sense then under the control of the 
 Free Church, to which he consequently did not report. 
 
 It will be noticed that Mr. James Stewart’s own statement as 
 to the flogging at Blantyre with which his name is associated, is 
 at variance with Dr. Rankin’s and Mr. Pringle’s representations, 
 and that he ‘ utterly repudiates ’ responsibility for ‘ the doings 
 which subsequently occurred at that station.’ 
 
 When the Free Church Mission was sent out in May 1875, the 
 missionaries were furnished with the following printed ‘ Instructions,’ 
 among others, prepared with the greatest care, and approved by the 
 General Assembly. From Dr. Stewart’s letter, and that of Dr. Laws 
 (quoted above), it is evident that these Instructions were recognised 
 to be the rules in force in the Mission at Livingstonia :— 
 
6 
 
 Instructions First Issued in 1875. 
 
 ‘ It is in your capacity as members of a pioneer Missionary Expedition into 
 hitherto unevangelized regions that we now address you, and the peculiar 
 character of your Mission will sufficiently account for the peculiarity of our 
 instructions. 
 
 ‘ Direct Alissionary Work. —From the first this may be carried on in an 
 indirect way by the services of morning and evening worship, which should be 
 steadily kept up by the party unitedly, as well as the more special services on a 
 simple form on Sundays at .first. So far as you can trust your interpreters, you 
 should lose no time in making known to the natives the grand leading object of 
 your Mission, which is the enlightenment of their minds, the salvation of their 
 souls, and, as the sure consequent of all this, the elevation of their character and 
 the improvement of their general condition, individual and social. With this 
 view you may begin early to communicate the simple truths of the Bible when¬ 
 ever you liave an opportunity ; although for a lengthened period the most 
 effective way by which the gospel can be understood by the natives will be 
 through your holy characters and consistent lives. At first, however, your 
 efforts should be very specially directed to the acquisition of the language. . . . 
 
 ^ Active Literfercnce with the Slave Trade. —On this difficult question no rule 
 can be laid down, except this, which is absolute, and to be scrupulously obserz'cd 
 by all the members of the party, that active interference by force initiated on your 
 side is in no case, and on no account whatever, to be resorted to. By showing the 
 people in kindly, loving, conciliatory ways, that they are acting against their own 
 interests, and destroying themselves in carrying on this trade, more will be 
 gained in the long run than by any armed interference with Arab caravans. . . . 
 
 ‘ The only circumstances in which fire-arms can be justifiably used will be 
 in self-defence, or in case of aetual attack, which is scarcely likely to liappen ; but 
 if this should occur, you will of course be bound to defend yourselves. But 
 under all circumstances of this nature, it will be better to try the effect of con¬ 
 ciliation, forbearance, and patient endurance to the uttermost, and even to retire 
 for a time. Livingstone’s journals will be found to supply some excellent 
 examples of what is here indicated. 
 
 ‘ General Attitude towards the Natives. —Those who are new to the country, 
 and inexperienced as regards the native people, should remember that they 
 require much explanation in all dealings with them; that patience is never 
 thrown away upon them ; that they fear and respect a man who, under the 
 discipline of self-control, is habitually quiet and firm in his demeanour, and who 
 never loses his temper. If you can habitually thus act, you will gain their 
 esteem. In no case break your word to them, even though you have made a 
 mistake in a bargain, or in promising too much on any payment. On the other 
 hand, in no case let them, through unguardedness or want of proper inquiry on your 
 part, overreach you. At all times make bargains and agreements perfectly clear. 
 Counsel peace always between tribes and neighbours, and in case of any tribal 
 difficulty do not take any side, if you can possibly avoid taking it; and be in 
 no hurry to do so. Never believe the first report that goes through the country, 
 until further inquiry make the truth plain ; and in dealing both with individuals 
 and with the people assembled in the villages, when you enter them on any 
 business, remember that simple acts of kindness and courtesy are never thrown 
 away, even on a savage people. ‘ Auex. Duff. 
 
 ‘John Kay.’ 
 
7 
 
 While these Instructions show the general spirit by which the 
 missionaries were to be ruled—a spirit of kindness and forbearance 
 —they could not possibly meet the requirements of every case 
 which might occur. The Foreign Missions Committee, having 
 recently been led to make inquiry into the matter, find that 
 some cases of punishment for crimes had occurred within the 
 region of the Livingstonia Mission, after the culprits were tried and 
 convicted, apparently in the belief that the circumstances of the 
 case justified resort to scourging. The only cases known to the 
 Committees are the following:— 
 
 In connection with kidnapping for slaves and other offences, two 
 artisans and a native catechist acted as arbiters at out-stations far from 
 Livingstonia. How these cases were dealt with, extracts from one of 
 the latest letters of Dr. Laws, dated 13th October 1880, will show 
 On his first visit to Bandawe, about 200 miles north of Livingstonia, 
 Dr. Laws called for the journal of the station, and found that ‘many 
 of the natives of the surrounding districts brought their disputes to 
 the Mission for settlement.’ The artisan then in charge used 
 school ‘tawse,’ or a leather book-strap inches broad. He had 
 chastised in all thirty-one cases. In only one instance did the 
 culprit receive so many as ‘ about three dozen ’ strokes with the 
 strap, and that for ‘an attack on the women of the station for 
 indecent purposes.’ Eleven of the cases were school-boys, who 
 received each two ‘ jDalmies ’ for robbing the neighbouring gardens. 
 Dr. Laws writes :— 
 
 ‘ I disapproved of his interfering in native quarrels so far as to take any active 
 measures for settling them, although I approved of his endeavouring, by advice, 
 to bring about an amicable arrangement of a disturbance. Many of these 
 quarrels arose from the slave question.’ 
 
 On the 20th October 1879 the artisan thus censured made the 
 following entry in the out-station journal ;— 
 
 ‘ A quarrel has arisen between the chiefs Gulugulu and Malanda, which has 
 resulted in a fight with the loss of four lives and other eleven wounded. As Dr. 
 Laws wishes no interference in inter-tribal quarrels, I took no step in the matter, 
 though the whole affair could have been easily stopped and those lives saved.’ 
 
 In reporting this to the Livingstonia Committee, Dr. Laws 
 writes:— 
 
 ‘Notwithstanding this stricture on my note of i6th, I hold by it, and consider 
 that while in such a case it would be right to go and try to persuade the parties 
 not to fight, it would not be right of him to go or to send to stop it by threats or 
 force.’ 
 
8 
 
 Dr. Laws explains that he had not deemed it necessary to report 
 to the Committee what he had entered in the journal, and had 
 censured as contrary to the Instructions at the time, because his 
 subordinates were leaving the country as time-expired men, and 
 he had carefully warned their successors. The only other case 
 which has come to the Committee’s knowledge, and that on hear¬ 
 say, is one in which a man Ropa, having squatted in a Livingstonia 
 village, committed the crime of rape on a girl of tender years. He 
 received twenty-four stripes, and was deported. A report on this 
 case has been called for. It is the only instance said to have 
 occurred at Livingstonia. 
 
 So soon as the Livingstonia Committee became aware of the 
 jiroceedings at Blantyre, they sent out still more definite instruc¬ 
 tions to Dr. Laws, forbidding corporal punishment, and approving 
 of deportation. 
 
 The Free Church Livingstonia Committee twice met the Foreign 
 Mission Committee of the Established Church in conference, at 
 the request of the latter, in June 1879 and on 17th February 1880. 
 'fhe question as to the propriety of exercising civil jurisdiction at 
 Mission stations was taken into consideration. The result was 
 thus minuted :— 
 
 ‘ Mr. White, on behalf of the Livingstonia Sub-Committee, stated that they 
 did not regard their Mission as the nucleus of a State, and bearing in mind the 
 danger which might arise were the Mission first to claim the power of life and 
 death, and then to find itself unable to enforce this claim, they thought that it 
 would be inexpedient for the Mission to undertake generally the civil admini¬ 
 stration of its territory. He also stated that the Livingstonia Committee 
 considered that such an assumption of power would be inconsistent with the 
 missionary character of the enterprise in which they are engaged. Looking, 
 however, to the fact that there must be some restraining influence at the settle¬ 
 ment, the Foreign Mission Committee had approved generally of the proposal 
 of Dr. Stewart, that the principle of deportation should be adopted. At the 
 same time they felt that, in the present state of affairs, considerable latitude 
 must be allowed to the members of the Mission to exercise their discretion in 
 special cases. Considerable discussion followed. 
 
 ‘Mr. White having to leave the meeting. Colonel Young was called upon to 
 take his place as chairman. 
 
 ‘ The conference was continued—it being clearly stated on the part of the 
 Free Church Committee that they adhered to the printed Instructions signed 
 by Dr. Duff and Mr. Kay, from which, by the letter from Dr. Stewart to Dr. 
 MacRae which had been read to the meeting, it was plain that these resolutions 
 were understood and acted on at Livingstonia—that the missionai'y character of 
 the movement must be adhered to. God has blessed and protected it in the 
 past, and we must look to Him for the future. Should difficulties with the 
 
9 
 
 natives arise, every effort must be made to overcome them in the spirit of the 
 gospel, and only in self-defence could force be justified. This view was accepted 
 by the conference. ’ 
 
 The Free Church ‘ Instructions ’ were a second time communi¬ 
 cated to the Established Church. On the day after, i8th February, 
 Dr. MacRae wrote to the Free Church Secretary ;—‘ Our Committee 
 are anxious that our missionaries should conform their practice to 
 that of yours.’ 
 
 The Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Church of Scot¬ 
 land, and its Livingstonia Sub-Committee, have thus endeavoured to 
 put the public into the position, in point of information, which they 
 themselves occupy. While they may not claim immunity from 
 error, or deny the possibility of prescribed rules being contravened, 
 they can unhesitatingly assure the friends of the Livingstonia 
 Mission that it has all along been their aim to carry out the 
 objects of the Mission on Lake Nyassa — evangelization and 
 civilisation—with kindness and forbearance towards the natives, and 
 without usurping the function of the civil magistrate. 
 
 Thomas Main, D.D., 
 
 Convener of Foreign Missions Committee. 
 
 James White, 
 
 Convener of Livingstonia Committee. 
 
 lefh March i88i. 
 
‘V 
 
 
 
 •v 
 
 «r 
 
 
 ^ ^ k 
 
 b«. ^ . * •' . 
 
 .1 Jiij, ’ -:.|! 'I .11 ; i o; 
 
 l2J'‘i:/bA t'V; v jl / :]»■>■ .1.•.)'■'*(.•( 9^1 
 
 5 T r? • '>• ' 
 
 
 
 ‘ 4 l .Vuf.'i il'“ ^ rovi'j.rr 
 
 '! '') i .l.•.^ ' rf \ffo I' f- 
 
 ‘kc ', 1^9 •• : 3 :i/*J Vrt 
 
 . -^>,0 
 
 u ul c oir:/ ’■ sb':.:-.: r ivti:.) Su,' ' , 
 
 / t'v^r (. oiH iO ^-iinri:.’ ' r\> ,.i J.c. ^ 
 
 
 ^ci;) I oifj c-J ?/?: .iVi 
 
 ,-,. I :.’. '-' 0 } -va:- i ,'J :,.J. ( jp|^xoUji« .UU ^ <..ti;:rK.':7;i 
 
 / ;0 ;... J 
 
 •iojr,':.. -i-ji’i ilr.liM'J 'H.-; f:;,v. jr sril 
 
 T cJI.>u;l/v ■ tj Mi') oO- ’I i:)i lmc J.r -1 
 
 /i'-'lu .i' |‘W».;>U’ >• « 4 ‘ .ui*'*, $4^J lii.v-i. ^ • i 
 
 ^ ;.' .:::i £.t.'' ^ .-i ' • I’dV/ 
 
 ,l>‘:'!3V..iK'. ' ^[i* J' •?. r Ii:.<i; i'‘ :Cij :;.fi 
 
 f 
 
 t > ’ 
 
 V 
 
 » y \ 
 
 % V«-' I 
 
 
 ' w./'1 ' i; .:ij 4 . 'fl • . .^ 4 -:ir;.c vl^i;jcr;..j;Ir::i £ > v-i’i 
 
 • :Il UJ'j r> ol (Xii.. v,.Ii iiv f ijaoft; Ilfi ? rl 2i XV lr.:.'h{^ 
 
 !mjx» : f.-01^ no. -x'i 
 
 L.tr,, jvir/t o.-ii ' .1. .'>j 1'- n. fiirT. : .'ib! ' *?. ii-' .i' 
 
 J \;.... I!. ■ •- u. .Jl J iu.^ 
 
 .-mm H/!-'ti'r , | 
 
 .*:». .A 
 
 ] 
 
 
 \r. V. /. v w', -,VAV*“Vj 
 
 .•■Vi'vv.' ’ i M’.' .,t It'. A . V' .”•.*■ I 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 1> 
 
 
 • M i ^''