Now, it so happens, that in no respect whatever are the Hindoo manners more deficient than in filial obedience, and conjugal fidelity. The Hindoos feel, indeed, a very strong attachment to their children, but they are exceedingly neglectful of early discipline; and hence disobe dience to parents is proverbial to a shocking degree. Hindoo lads, especially among the poor, make no hesitation in grossly abusing both father and mother. It is a fact which greatly perplexes many of the well informed Hindoos, that notwithstanding the wives of Europeans are seen in so many mixed companies, they remain chaste; while their wives, though continually secluded, watched, and veiled, are so notoriously corrupt. I recollect the observation of a gentleman who had lived nearly twenty years in Bengal, and whose opinions on such a subject demand the highest regard, that the infidelity of the Hindoo women was so great, that he scarcely thought there was a single instance of a wife who had been always faithful to her husband.

The acknowledgement of Ramu-nat'hu, the second Sungskritŭ pundit in the college of Fort William, alluding to the lascivious character of the god Krishnŭ, that ' almost every house in Calcutta, and other large towns, contained a Krishnu,' exhibits pretty plainly the state of the public morals. The number of houses of ill-fame in Calcutta is almost incredible. Indeed, such is the licentious character of this people, that, notwithstanding all the terrors of the cast, thousands of bramhuns live with parier and Musulman women. Some years ago, one of the Hindoo rajas, of the kshŭtriyŭ cast, retained an English concubine; and afterwards had a family by a Mŭsulman woman, whose sons were invested with the poita, and were all married to Hindoos. This woman had a se

parate house, where the raja visited her; she worshipped idols, had a bramhun for her spiritual guide, and another for her priest; and all the Hindoos around partook of the food which had been cooked in the houses of this woman and her children, so that thousands of persons, according to the strict laws of the shastru, forfeited their casts. In all the large towns, as Calcutta, Dhaka, Patna, Moorshŭdŭbad, &c. many rich Hindoos live with Musulman concubines; and, amongst the lower orders, this intermixture of the casts for iniquitous purposes is still more general.

The Hindoos, in their common language, have no word for thank you,' and gratitude itself appears to make no part of their virtues; for the greatest benefits conferred very rarely meet with even the least acknowledgment. I have known European physicians perform the most ex traordinary cures on the bodies of the natives gratuitously, with scarcely a solitary instance of a single individual returning to acknowledge the favour.

The natives are full of extravagant flattery, and the most fulsome panegyric. It is really curious to see the contrast between the bluntness of an enlightened European or American, and the smooth, easy, and even dignified polish of these naked Hindoos. On proper occasions, their conduct is truly graceful; and perhaps they may not improperly be ranked among the politest nations on earth; yet, it is equally true, that, where a Hindoo feels that he is superior to a foreigner, in wealth or power, he is too often the most insolent fellow on earth.

Connected with this defect in the Hindoo character, is their proneness to deception and falsehood. Perhaps

this is the vice of all effeminate nations, while blunt honesty, and stern integrity, are most common in climates where men are more robust. It is likewise certain, that people in a state of mental bondage are most deceitful : and that falsehood is most detested by men in a state of manly independence. An English sailor, however vicious in other respects, scorns to take refuge in a falsehood: but the Hindoos, imitating the gods, and encouraged by the shastru, which admits of prevarication in cases of necessity, are notoriously addicted to falsehood, whenever their fears, their cupidity, or their pride, present the temptation. The author has heard Hindoos of all ranks declare, that it was impossible to transact business with a strict adherence to truth, and that falsehood, on such occasions, would not be noticed in a future state. At other times, they profess to have the greatest abhorrence of lying, and quote those parts of their shastrus which prohibit this vice, with every appearance of conscientious indignation.

They are very litigious and quarrelsome, and, in defence of a cause in a court of justice, will swear falsely in the most shocking manner, so that a judge never knows when he may safely believe Hindoo witnesses. It is said, that some of the courts of justice are invested by a set of men termed four anas' men; who, for so paltry a sum, are willing to make oath to any fact, however false.

The Hindoos, forbidden by their religion to destroy animal life for food, have received credit for being

In conversations with the Hindoos, I have heard them avow, that the way to approach a great man was to flatter him exceedingly; and that, in fact, this was the best method of pleasing and gaining access to the gods. The instances given in the pooranŭs, of the gods being overcome by flattery, are innumerable.

very humane; but we look in vain amongst them for that refined sensibility which makes men participate in the distresses of others; their cruelty towards the sick, the insane, and persons of an inferior cast, as well as to their cattle, and even towards the cow, a form of the goddess Bhugŭvutēē, is carried to the most abominable lengths.

Private murder is practised to a dreadful extent among the Hindoos, and is exceedingly facilitated, and detection prevented, by the practice of hurrying sick persons to the banks of the river, and burning them as soon as dead. Many anecdotes on this subject might be given; for the sake of illustration, I give the following: A few years ago, a raja, living about a hundred miles from Calcutta, sent for an English physician from that city. By the time this gentleman arrived, his relations had brought the sick raja to the river side, and, in a short time, would, no doubt, have killed him. The physician reproved them for their want of feeling, and ordered his patient to be carried home, where, in a few days, he recovered. Before the doctor took his leave, he made the raja promise to give him the earliest information if he should be hereafter sick. Soon afterwards, the disease having returned, he sent for his old friend; but, before he could arrive, his relations had dispatched him with the mud and water of the sacred stream. Instances of persons being secretly poisoned by their relations, are numerous, especially in the houses of the rich, where detection is almost impossible.

The crime of destroying illegitimate children in the womb, is also prevalent to a shocking degree in Bengal. In the family of a single koolēēnŭ bramhŭn, whose daughters never live with their husbands, it is common for each daughter to destroy a child in the womb annually;

this crime is also very prevalent among widows, so numerous in this country. The pundit who gave me this information, supposes that 10,000 children are thus murdered, in the province of Bengal, every month!! Expressing my doubts of this extraordinary and shocking circumstance, this person appealed to the fact of many females being tried for these offences, in the courts of justice, in every zillah in Bengal. He said, the fact was so notorious, that every child in the country knew of it; and that the crime had acquired an appropriate name, pétů-phéla, viz. thrown from the belly; pét-phélanēē is also a term of abuse, which one woman often gives to another. It is a fact too, that many women die after taking the drug intended to destroy the unborn child.

The treachery of this people to each other is so great, that it is not uncommon for persons to live together, for the greatest length of time, without the least confidence in each other; and, where the greatest union apparently exists, it is dissolved by the slightest collision. A European never has the heart of a Hindoo, who neither knows the influence of gratitude, nor feels the dignity of a disinterested attachment.

The Hindoos are excessively addicted to covetousness, especially in the great towns, where they have been corrupted by commerce: almost the whole of their incidental conversation turns upon roopees and kourees.

Gaming is another vice of which the Hindoos, encouraged by their sacred writings, are extremely fond, and in the practice of which their holiest monarch, Yoodhist'hiru, twice lost his kingdom.