24 SEPTEMBER 1870, Page 14

AN. UNSTABLE CONVERT.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Stu,—As you have admitted Miss Collet's letter, the animus of which is evident, on the subject of the apostacy of Gonesh Sun- dari, I do not doubt you will also publish the enclosed letter of Mr. Vaughan, which, to say the least, materially qualifies what has been previously asserted.—I am, Sir, &c.,

HENRY A. MITTON.

The Vicarage, Bishop Auckland, Sept. 20.

[We have not space for the whole of Mr. Vaughan's letter, but insert his account of the present state of the case.—ED. Spectator.]

"The whole is not yet known, but something is ; that something I am about to relate. Gonesh Shundari has lived in this mission com- pound for the last three months. Barring little frailties of temper and habit, her conduct has been irreproachable. She has been regular and devout in her attendance on religious ordinances ; she has come to me almost daily for instruction. Little troubles she has had ; but these have had nothing to do with her religions convictions; nor has she at any time by word or deed shown the slightest wavering in the grounds of her faith.

"The main disturbing cause with her has been the persistent efforts of her relations to get her away. From the time of her coming to us, I have given the fullest liberty to her friends to visit her. Her mother has been almost a daily visitor. About three weeks after the Habeas Corpus trial, she was prevailed upon by a ruse to visit her home. An attempt was then and there made to confine her, which attempt she frustrated by a speedy retreat. After this the importunity of her friends to remove her slackened for a while. About five weeks ago they resumed the same subject under a new and more tempting aspect. They assured her that a wealthy member of the Sen family had generously offered to support her and her whole family if she would return to live with them. This liberal pro- posal was accompanied with earnest pledges that she should have the fullest liberty to live according to her adopted faith. Gonesh at the first doubted the sincerity of this latter promise ; but it would seem that the reiteration of the story from day to day, joined with the entreaties of those whom she loved, begat in her a sort of faith, or rather hope, of the feasibility of the proposed scheme. The effect of all this was neces- sarily more or less to unsettle her. Still, she would not have taken action so speedily as she did, had not an untoward event occurred to ruffle her. This was a trivial dispute with the person in whose house she was lodged. The matter of difference simply related to domestic arrangements ; but it decided her to go to her mother's house. She had hardly crossed the threshold of the house when the story was given out that she had renounced Christianity. At this (i. e., the story) I was not in the least surprised. It was the very thing I had looked for ; nor was I astonished when her brother put a letter into my hand as coming from herself and confirming the rumour. I knew her handwriting too well to be de- ceived. It was the work of another hand. For three days she was in her mother's house. But we tried in vain to gain access to her. Since that she has been in the custody of the Brallmos. She is now living in a Brahmo family. A native Christian friend has twice got sight of her in her present abode. On the first occasion she sent an affectionate message to myself, saying she would come to see me ; on the other (Friday last) she expressed a hope that she would be at church on Sun- day. I have neither seen her nor has she been at church. Up to this point this is all I know."