Missions’ accommodation with the real worlds of political authority and economic activity was seen neither as inescapable surrender nor as a source of perpetual dependence. Early nineteenth-century evangelical views of imperial and indigenous authority were distinguished by their sense of selfsufficiency under Divine superintendence. Recognition by evangelicals of limiting conditions, however imposed, must always be distinguished from reliance on or subservience to them. Only through an understanding of missionaries’ faith and their trust in Providence and the Bible can historians hope to explain the incurable optimism, and missions’ persistence in the face of death, hardship, deprivation, and the tiny numbers of converts.
For missionaries, faith placed the Empire in perspective. ‘Empire’, like ‘civilization’, was at best something to be turned to advantage, a means to an end but equally something to be ignored or rejected if it failed to serve their purpose.
It is very well in its place [wrote Philip] to urge the civilizing influence of a missionary society. But this is not the main object of such an institution. It is not the end; it is only the accompaniment. It is a never-failing collateral, and may be used as a lawful instrument in fighting the battles of the missionary cause.
If people would but realize it, far from missions depending on Empire, the reverse was the case.
While our missionaries, beyond the borders of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, are everywhere scattering the seeds of civilization, social order, and happiness, they are, by the most unexceptionable means, extending British interests, British influence, and the British empire... every genuine convert among them made to the Christian religion becomes the ally and friend of the colonial government.
It may seem perverse for one so insecurely placed as Philip to invert the balance of power between missions and government. He did so understanding that it was the task of imperial rulers to look after Empire and, if they were wise, to facilitate missionary enterprise. Missions could generally count on the protection of Providence; the survival and success of Empire, however, were essentially uncertain.
Since the 1790s, missions had been hampered by the need for self-defence and self-justification. Having secured their initial positions, in the 1830s and 1840s they went onto the offensive. This can be seen in the performance of leading missionaries and the principal society secretaries before the parliamentary Select Committee on Aborigines in 1835-7. In the 1820s missionary defensiveness was evident in John Philip’s frustrated insistence on the overwhelming need for secure, independent settlements for missionaries and their converts: ‘permanent societies of Christians can never be maintained among an uncivilized people without imparting to them the arts and habits of a civilized life’. At the same time he argued, ‘Agriculture and commerce can never flourish, unless private property is respected, and the laws which guard the possessions of individuals are the first principles of industry.’ Ten years on, this had become William Shaw’s calmly stated commonsense, even conventional, wisdom. Asked if he knew ‘any class of missionaries who, in their attempts to instruct the natives in Christianity, combine the principles of Christianity and civilization’, Shaw responded that this ‘was precisely the plan on which the missionaries of the Wesleyan society endeavoured to act’. Called to the witness stand a year later, the LMS South Seas missionary John Williams agreed. The Select Committee’s Report fully endorsed the role of missions as principal agents in a process of defending indigenous people against the uncontrolled rapacity of white settlers and traders. The eagerness of missions to expand beyond imperial boundaries demonstrated their wish to play a similar role on a world stage, as, for example, through the societies’ backing for the African Civilization Society and the Niger Expedition of 1841-2, which aimed to introduce ‘legitimate’ commerce to the African interior in the hope that it would displace the illegitimate trade in slaves.
Even the SPG’s high-churchmen now began to jump aboard the bandwagon, establishing the Colonial Bishoprics Fund (1841) in order to extend episcopal authority and superintendence overseas. George Augustus Selwyn, consecrated Bishop of New Zealand in 1841, was the first of fifteen bishops made in the 1840s. Selwyn did not distinguish between his imperial, colonial, and missionary roles. He was a ‘missionary bishop’, consecrated to the task of building up the Church from its very beginning, consulting the opinions of his fellow clergy but acting essentially on his own authority inside or outside colonial territory. Highlighting the universal, global outlook of the missionary movement, the geographical limits of his diocese stretched far beyond any formal British control. Just as other missions focused on missionary stations and schools, so Selwyn elevated the cathedral and the community built around it. He shared with other denominations a sense of providential guidance and inspiration. Arriving in New Zealand in May 1842, he spoke in apocalyptic terms: ‘if we know that the fulfilment of prophecy, and the completion of promises, and the growth of Christ’s kingdom, all portend the coming of the end... what need we any further argument, [or] stronger motive... to devote ourselves... to this great and hopeful work?’ He thus launched his own Melanesian Mission in 1847.
The heady atmosphere of the decade was heightened further by other missionary initiatives, to China after the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and to southern and eastern Africa. Roman Catholic revival spawned new missions to Tahiti and New Zealand backed by French official support, adding a bitter competitive edge in the Pacific. Although the failure of the Niger Expedition was a serious setback, the missions did not allow themselves to be dragged down by it. With the aid of growing numbers of indigenous agents, Baptists, Scottish Presbyterians, the CMS, and the Methodists went ahead with new West African ventures at Badagry, Abeokuta, Fernando Po, and Calabar.