Conversion corrupts?! - 2

This item, appears in the Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star, available at Google Books,  Vol. L,  (1888),  page 28, under the heading "FACTS AND EVENTS".

CREEDS AND CRIMINALITY. — The official statement as to the moral and material progress of India, which has recently been published, supplies a very interesting contribution to the controversy on the missionary question.  It appears from these figures that while we effect a very marked moral deterioration in the natives by converting them to our creed, their natural standard of morality is so high that, however much we Christianize them, we cannot succeed in making them altogether as bad as ourselves.   The figures representing the proportions of criminality in the several classes are as follows:—Europeans, 1 in 274; Eurasians, 1 in 509; native Christians, 1 in 799; Mahomedans, 1 in 856; Hindoos, 1 in 1,361; and Buddhists, 1 in 3,787.  The last item is a magnificent tribute to the exalted purity of Buddhism, but, the statistics are instructive throughout, and enforce with resistless power the conclusion that, as a mere matter of social polity, we should do much better if we devoted our superfluous cash and zeal for a generation or two to the ethical improvement of our own countrymen, instead of trying to 'upset the morality, together with the theology, of people who might reasonably send out missions to convert us.—Table.[sic]

Remarkable that this should be published in a Mormon periodical!

This item also appears in Lucifer, A Theosophical Magazine, edited by H.P. Blavatsky and Mabel Collins, page 142, Volume II, March 1888-August 1888, available at Google Books.

This is within in a reply to an account of lectures on Buddhism by Sir Monier Williams, in the Scotsman of March 8, 1888.  The essay is titled "CHRISTIAN LECTURERS ON BUDDHISM, AND PLAIN FACTS ABOUT THE SAME, BY BUDDHISTS".

As to the respective merits of Buddhism and Christianity, as a Buddhist who may be suspected of partiality, I shall leave the burden of establishing the comparison to Christians themselves.  This is what one reads in the Tablet, the leading organ of Roman Catholic Englishment, about Creeds and Criminality.  I underline the most remarkable statements.
 "The official statement as to the moral and material progress of India, which has recently been published, supplies a very interesting contribution to the controversy on the missionary question.  It appears from these figures that while we effect a very marked moral deterioration in the natives by converting them to our creed, THEIR NATURAL STANDARD OF MORALITY IS SO HIGH that, however much we Christianize them, we cannot succeed in making them altogether as bad as ourselves."   The figures representing the proportions of criminality in the several classes are as follows:— 

EUROPEANS  .     .      .      .    1 in 274.
Eurasians*  .      .     .      .     .     1 in 509.
Native Christians  .    .    .      .    1 in 799.
Mahomedans  .     .     .     .     .   1 in 856.
Hindoos .    .     .     .    .     .     .  1 in 1,361.
BUDDHISTS  .    .    .     .    .  , 1 in 3,787. 

"The last item," says the Tablet,  is a magnificent tribute to the exalted purity of Buddhism, but, the statistics are instructive throughout, and enforce with resistless power the conclusion that, as a mere matter of social polity, we should do much better if we devoted our superfluous cash and zeal for a generation or two to the ethical improvement of our own countrymen, instead of trying to 'upset the morality, together with the theology, of people WHO MIGHT REASONABLY SEND OUT MISSIONS TO CONVERT US."
No better answer than this could a Buddhist find as a reply to the uncharitable and incorrect comparisons between the two creeds instituted by Sir Monier Williams.  He should remember, however, the words of his Master, "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

* The fruits of European chastity and moral virtue, and of the obedience of Christians to the commands of Jesus.