when described by its most strenuous advocates; for the reader will have seen that in the pamphlet under consideration, the admissions of the Advocate for its continuance condemn the practice scarcely less than Mrityoonjuya himself. As a command it has not the least foundation in the Hindoo system; for while it is recommended to all, at least ninety-nine out of a hundred of the strictest and most devout Hindoos have ever lived in complete disregard of it. Had it been otherwise indeed, as the recommendation is general, the country must have been every year a scene of general massacre. If the number of Hindoos in India be computed at a hundred millions, and few will estimate them lower, the least number who die annually must, in the common course of mortality, be estimated at three millions; and, as nearly every man is married, and in general to a woman far younger than himself, a million of widows annually is the very lowest number which we ought to reckon. Now if only one out of a hundred of these are burned, this will exhibit ten thousand widows consigned to the flames every year! but, were the whole million to be thus burnt alive, this country would yearly present such a Gehenna -such a sacrifice to Moloch, as the world has never beheld. A law, however, regularly disobeyed by ninety-nine out of a hundred of those to whom it is given, and this without either punishment or blame, is totally unworthy the name. Such is not the case with the laws of the Hindoo system: by these widows are forbidden to marry again,—and not one in a thousand ever marries again. As a recommendation then it has not been supported by one fifth of the Hindoo writers on ethics or jurisprudence, nor practically regarded by a thousandth part of those who profess Hindooism. The recommendation is also in direct opposition to the command of the great Hindoo lawgiver, who enjoins on every widow a life of abstinence and chastity; and further, it is grounded on principles completely subversive of the Hindoo system, and opposed to that course which the Hindoos believe to be the only path to final happiness. Yet this practice, thus opposed to their great legislator's command-to the very nature of their religious systemand to all their best ideas of virtue, is kept alive in the metropolis and its vicinity by acts of unfeeling coercion, which are the most direct violations of the rules laid down by those few who have at all recommended the practice, while in the provinces of Hindoostan, which is held to have been the chief seat of every important transaction detailed in their mythology, and which contains a brave, noble, courageous race, before whom the natives of Bengal have always trembled, the practice, if formerly prevalent in any great degree, has at this time nearly expired beneath the feelings of common humanity. Yet all these circumstances of additional cruelty are now detailed and justified in an address to the British public, while not the least shadow of argument is brought forward in support of the system; but rather principles are tacitly avowed as the grand motive for continuing it, which discover the most complete absence of feeling for the moral welfare of their dearest female relatives, and reflect on their characters the highest dishonour.

While the discussion of the subject was confined to the native lan

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guage, a certain degree of silence might perhaps have been less blameable. But after a justification of the system has appeared in the shape of an appeal to the public both in India and in Britain, in the English language, it would be criminal to remain silent, and a grievous offence against humanity to treat the subject in a light and cursory manner. And when it is considered, that this practice causes the death of a greater number of persons in one year, who, if they ought not to be thus burnt alive, involve the country in all the guilt of innocent blood, than are publicly executed for their crimes throughout the whole of India in the course of twenty years, it cannot be wrong to call to this momentous subject the attention of every friend to his country. How would Britain feel, if within herself a hundred innocent persons suffered death by some mistake of law in the course of a year! How then ought she to feel when in only one province of her foreign dominions nearly a thousand innocent widows are every year burnt to death? Were this inhuman persecution, which, in the number of its annual victims, exceeds all that papal superstition ever brought to the stake in Britain in the course of a century, directed by the supporters of this practice against any particular sect, or class of men, they would long ago have appealed to their rulers for redress, or they would have left the spot where they were treated with such cruelty. But how can mothers and sisters make an appeal against their own relatives? How can a wife, a mother, withdraw from her own family? They may endure continual agony under the apprehension of the dreadful doom which they know awaits them on the first fatal attack of disease on their husbands, they may feel their anguish renewed at the sight of every female neighbour they behold led forth to the flames they may tremble at every touch of disease that affects their husbands, and weep at every recollection of their hapless children; but can they leave the scene of suffering? can they make known their sorrows? dare they bewray, even in the slightest degree, the anguish which preys on their vitals? They lie bound as sheep for the slaughter;-and thus they must remain, suffering in silence, till British feeling and sympathy shall duly realize their hitherto unknown, unpitied misery.*.

SECTION V.

The present partial interference of the British Government promotes the INCREASE, CELEBRITY, and SUPPOSED LEGALITY of the Suttee.

THE sentiment of the Poet, "Tis but lame kindness that does its work by halves," applies with peculiar force to the regulations enacted in British India relative to the burning of widows. This will appear by the following extracts from the Parliamentary Papers relating to Hindoo widows; No. i, ii, iii, iv,; printed July, 1821; June, 1823; June, 1824; and July, 1825.

* Friend of India, (monthly series), Vol. ii. Page 453-483.

"It appears to me that, if the practice is allowed to exist at all, the less notice we take of it the better, because the apparent object of the interference of the police is to compel the people to observe the rules of their own shastras, (which of themselves they will not obey), by ascertaining particular circumstances of the condition of the widow. The object of the interference does not appear to answer the proposed end: for, with the same means of obtaining information, the number of widows burnt in 1817 far exceeds that in the preceding years. It is true, that the interference of the police may, in some cases, have induced compliance with the rules of the shastras; but the official attendance of the darogah stamps every regular Suttee with the sanction of Government; and I must humbly submit, that authorizing a practice is not the way to effect its gradual abolition."* (W. Ewer, Esq., Act. Sup. of Police, Lower Provinces, Calcutta, Nov., 1818.)

"Mr. Chapman entirely agrees with Mr. Oakley that the interference of Government has been a cause of the increased prevalence of Suttee." (W. Ewer, Esq., &c.)

"I should not deem it improbable that the interference of the police officers, under the orders of Government, may have tended to increase the practice, by acting as a stimulus, in the same manner that the interference of European Governments with the religious tenets of any sect, has always tended to increase the zeal and confirm the prejudices of the sectaries." (J. Ewing, Esq., Magistrate, Sylhet.)

"Previous to 1813, no interference on the part of the police was authorized, and widows were sacrificed legally or illegally as it might happen; but the Hindoos were then aware that the Government regarded the custom with natural horror, and would do any thing short of direct prohibition to discourage and gradually to abolish it. The case is now altered. The police officers are ordered to interfere, for the purpose of ascertaining that the ceremony is performed in conformity with the rules of the shastras, and in that event to allow its completion. This is granting the authority of Government for the burning of widows; and it can scarcely be a matter of astonishment that the number of the sacrifices should be doubled when the sanction of the ruling power is added to the recommendation of the shastra." (H. Oakley, Esq., Mag., Hooghly, Dec., 1818.)

"The Governor General in Council is reluctantly led to express his apprehension that the greater confidence with which the people perform this rite under the sanction of Government, as implied or avowed in the circular orders already in force, combined with the excitement of religious bigotry by the continual agitation of the question, may have tended to augment, rather than diminish, the frequency of these sacrifices." || (Calcutta, Dec., 1819.) The increase here referred to was evident from the returns of Suttees in the several districts subordinate to the Presidency of Fort William, viz., in the year,

661815 ... 378.

* Par. Papers, No i. p. 229. + p. 232. p. 232. § p. 236. || p. 242.

I p. 241.

Relative to the increase of Suttees, the Magistrates in the Allypore district remark, "The abstract statement of the number of Suttees exhibits the frequency of these abominable sacrifices so progressively and materially increased since the period referred to, (from 1815 to 1818), as to justify our being confirmed in the belief, before more than once expressed by this, to the superior Court, that any interference, save that of a total prohibition under the severest penalties, will ever be productive of a mistaken spirit of jealousy and opposition, which will hope by encouraging the prevalence of this superstitious usage, to induce us to discontinue altogether our interference."* (Allypore, March, 1819.)

"As far as my observation goes, I shall say that the humane intentions of the framers of the regulations regarding these ceremonies will not be fully answered. It can hardly be doubted but that the necessary presence of the police officers of Government, at these immolations, stamps on them that character of strict legality and seem to afford them that degree of countenance on the part of Government which must produce an evil effect." + (J. F. Petty, Esq, Mag., Southern Concan.)

"After having weighed, with every deliberation, the mode of carrying into effect the intention of Government, I became most fully satisfied that if the prohibitory points to the sacrifice were to be determined by native police officers, the practice of this awful rite would shortly multiply manifold."‡ (J. Marriott, Esq., Mag., Tannah, Sep. 1819.)

"Our Government, by modifying the thing and issuing orders about it,-orders which even the Government and the Sudder Judges themselves do not appear clearly to comprehend, have thrown the ideas of the Hindoos upon the subject into a complete state of confusion. They know not what is allowed and what interdicted; but, upon the whole, they have a persuasion that our Government, whom they most erroneously suppose to be indifferent about the lives of the natives, are rather favourable to Suttees than otherwise. They will then believe that we abhor the usage when we prohibit in toto by an absolute and peremptory law. They have no idea that we might not do so with the most perfect safety. They conceive our power and our will to be commensurate."§ (C. Smith, Esq., Second Judge, Calcutta, Aug., 1821.)

The Hon. the Court of Directors, in a letter to the Governor General in Council, under date London, June, 1823, thus express their opinion upon the subject of partial interference, "To us it appears very doubtful (and we are confirmed in this doubt by respectable authority) whether the measures which have been already taken have not tended rather to increase than to diminish the frequency of the practice. Such a tendency is, at least, not unnaturally ascribed to a Regulation which, prohibiting a practice only in certain cases, appears to sanction it in all others. It is to be apprehended, that where the people have not previously a very enthusiastic attatchment to the custom, a law which shall explain to them * Par. Papers, No. i. p. 218. + p. 254. 255, 256. § No. ii. p. 67.

the cases in which it ought not to be followed may be taken as a direction for adopting it in all others. It is, moreover, with much reluctance that we can consent to make the British Government, by a specific permission of the Suttee, an ostensible party to the sacrifice; we are averse also to the practice of making British Courts expounders and vindicators of the Hindoo religion, when it leads to acts which, not less as Legislators than as Christians, we abominate."*

"A general opinion prevails (in which I most cordially concur), that, in order to reduce the frequency of this rite, it should be neglected and treated with as little notice as possible." + (J. J. Sparrow, Esq., Col. & Mag., S. Concan, Feb., 1822.)

The opinions of the second, third, and fifth Judges of the Nizamut Adawlut in Calcutta, are as follows:

"The second Judge cannot subscribe to any instructions that have a tendency to modify, systematize, or legalize the usage, or that appear to regard a legal Suttee as at all better than an illegal one. He is convinced, that if this mode of issuing orders under the sanction of Government to regulate Suttees is continued, the practice will take such deep root, vader the authority of the supreme power of the country, that to eradiate it will become impossible. The usage will be much more likely to fall into disuse under a total neglect on the part of Government, than under the present system of attention and inquiry, which serves but to keep the feelings of the Hindoo population alive upon the point, and to give a sort of interest and celebrity to the sacrifice, which is in the highest degree favourable to its continuance and extension." (C. Smith, Esq.)

"I conceive that we have already done a great deal of mischief in this way, and that instead of diminishing we have increased the evil.Ӥ (J. T. Shakespeare, Esq.)

"I confess that my own opinion inclines me to impute to the Regulations a positively pernicious tendency, in proportion to the degree in which they have brought the sacrifices under the more immediate cognizance of the officers of Government, whose presence at the ceremony, instead of operating as a restraint, has, I am afraid, contributed to invest it with additional solemnity, and to confer on the performance of it, in the mistaken view of the natives, a species of authoritative sanction which it was not before considered to possess."|| (W. B. Martin, Esq.)

"It can hardly be doubted but that the printed work regarding Suttees has given the ceremony, in the eyes of the natives, a stamp of legality which in our Provinces-it never before possessed; and it may therefore be questioned whether, upon the whole, more harm than good may not have followed its publication." (Bombay, Jud. Cons., June, 1820.)

"This permission I found that the people most ignorantly and perversely abused; and, at every stage of my argument with them, an appeal was made to the order of Government, as a vindication of their conduct. There can be no doubt of the benevolent intention of Go* Par. Papers, No. iii. p. 45. p. 48. No. iv. p. 148. § p. 149. || p. 149. I p. 156.