tion of the obnoxious ritė. I say fortunately, because it seems probable that the advocates of reform will not cease to urge the suppression of it, until they procure an edict commanding it to be attempted, without scruple as to means, or regard for the consequences. I feel confident that, by judicious, temperate, but firm measures, the practice may soon be extinguished, with, at the worst, a mere local short-lived feeling of discontent and faint murmurs. Not a soldier! need be called in sto strengthen the arm of the law; but only the vigilance, and occasionally the exertions and authority, of the ordinary police will be needed. If it should happen that the military must be employed, their presence alone, without the use of any weapons, would, I trust, be sufficient. As to the danger of employing sipahees on such an occasion, there can be little, if any. Our sipahees, on the score of religious prejudice, or of country, could have no fellow feeling with the malcontents. The Bengalees, whose province would be the seat of action and disturbance, are quite foreign to the bulk of our native army, and are despised and disliked by the finer race of men which compose it, and the bulk of whom are drawn from Awud and other parts of Upper India. The majority of these, in their native provinces, never witnessed, perhaps never even heard of, a suttee, and are likely, therefore, to contemplate it in the same tight, and with the same feelings of horror and detestation, as their European and Mosulman comrades. 11 as ea qui nou & However extensive and profound the knowledge of Judge Blackstone may have been in the laws of nature and of nations, it does not seem rational to expect that the code of England should be adopted by the world at large, or that it could judiciously or equitably be forced upon our Indian subjects.' If no express compact has ever been entered into between us and them, whereby we bound ourselves to govern them according to their own laws and religions, yet sound policy requires that we should do so. Some regulations of government express this, most of them imply it, and the people understand it. They are a people too whose language, religion, laws, temper, habits, customs, prejudices, and modes of thinking are entirely dissimilar from our own. The Indian government in legislating, and its servants in recommending changes, naturally, often insensibly, lean to the institutions of their own country, and suppose that they act wisely in assimilating the laws and practice in India to those of their native land; but in so doing they have frequently erred. Some of the ills now most complained of by the natives and by European settlers in the interior have grown out of this injudicious partiality. The state of society and the character of the people are unsuited to the refinements, the subtleties, or the peculiarities of English law, either of the civil or criminal code; hence the danger and inexpediency of the British Parliament's legislating for our Indian possessions. If such gross errors are occasionally fallen into in enacting laws for our own country, what may we not apprehend from its attempts to frame them for a country so distant and so foreign! The voice of complaint or remon strance would scarcely be heard or attended to at that distance; but all enactments, however grievous or odious, must either be patiently submitted to, or, if too intolerable to be borne by even Indian submissiveness and forbearance, procure their own repeal by exciting rebellion.

Jer

If the Indian government be indeed reprehensible for not acting on the principles of English law in the territories subject to its rule, and prohibiting suttees and punishing parties to them for wilful murder, is not his Majesty's Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta equally, or even more culpable, for not proceeding against persons subject to its jurisdiction, for such heinous violations of those laws which it is constituted to administer? If, as seems to

be

be the case, the government apprehended from the direct and positive prohibition of the rite, any serious ill consequences, even those fatal results, which some avow should be risked in making the attempt, I am not of the number of its condemners, je te onth,

When legislating for the country, the local government is cautious of encroaching upon, or violating the religious opinions and prejudices of the natives; hence, in all matters that bear in any degree upon these, I believe it usually calls for the opinion of the Nizamut and Dewanee Adawlut, the highest native court of civil and criminal judicature under the presidency of Calcutta, and that its resolves are influenced or determined by that court's suggestions and opinions. Considering the character of this court collectively, that it is supposed to be composed of some the oldest, ablest, and most experienced servants, who are presumed to be intimately acquainted with Indian law, and the national character and feelings, which the majority of the council can scarcely be, this practice is equally prudent and rational; it is analagous to the proce dure which obtains in the Parliament of Great Britain on particular occasions, in consulting the judges of the land. Such appears to have been the course pursued by the government on the present: occasion: reluctant to take a decided step, in what appeared to be a matter of such moment, and so exclusively of a religious and legal nature, fet desirous to extinguish a rite so abominable, and urged on by authority and by public opinion to attempt it, it had recourse to the Nizamut Adawlut for advice. The court's first step was to ascertain the authority for this rite, to whom and under what circumstances: it was permitted, and to whom denied. It has, in doing this, drawn the veil of ignorance from before the eyes of both Europeans and natives, and has shewn us that atrocious murders are daily perpetrated under the cloak of religion. It then issued certain instructions to magistrates throughout the country, bearing strong marks of indecision and timid caution, but apparently failed to suggest any strong decided measure, such as the information disclosed warranted. We are, therefore, no further advanced towards the desired point than before: on the contrary, it is questionable if the custom is not now more. prevalent than it was before the matter was agitated, though it is impossible to ascertain this. I apprehend that if there be any increase, it may be attributed, in some degree, to this very agitation of the matter, the timid course; pursued, and the discussions concerning it among the natives themselves, originating in and facilitated by the diffusion among them of newspapers in the English and oriental languages. ཚ*

Had it occurred to the government, that the opinions of the Nizamut Adawlut might be biassed by feelings and notions, growing out of a long and intimates intercourse with the natives of the country, which have a natural tendency to generate an indulgent leaning towards them, and a disposition to tolerate their faults and errors, nay, even their very crimes, where they spring out of their religion, it is probable that it would have called for the opinions of many individuals in the service, whose general character, official situations, and expe: rience, gave them opportunities of judging, and on whose discretion it could have relied for sound, temperate, correct, and impartial opinions. Had this been done, it is not unlikely that we should have been further advanced towards the suppression of the rite, ca

To assert, or suppose, that concremation is a rite voluntarily performed by all or many widows, is to outrage reason and common sense. That it is so in some instances, facts and a knowledge of human nature warrant us in believing. To suppose that the state of beatitude, and the joys which the Shastres hold

-out

2

out as the reward of the suttee, influence the minds of women in general, that they do contemplate them, and that with such intensity as to beget a degree of * fortitude and enthusiasm superior to, and subductive of, the horrors of death, la death the most terrific,and capable of begetting contempt of and indifference to every tie which binds us to life, were to indulge the fancies of a visionary. Some, indeed, who have passed a long life in uninterrupted hårmony with an ardently-loved partner, still now perhaps their only stay and comfort; who have no kindred, no friends left; who see old age, sickness, infirmity, desolation, and solitude before them; who have in short no tie remainBing which binds them to earth, but see every bliss in heaven, may have died voluntarily such a death : some such there ever will be found. But that infancy is susceptive of, or can be actuated by, such impulses and sentiments, obviously cannot be. Neither can we suppose that youth and loveliness, when the fetter that bound it to age, decrepitude, disease, deformity, impotence, and imbecility to a morose, selfish, tyrannic, brutal temper-is broken, can by any supernatural process, or by the workings of an enthusiastic fancy, subdue the "predominating passions of disgust, hatred, and fear; convert a hated mortal into a bright and lovely celestial; suddenly banish all the glowing visions, and repress the warm and generous affections of youth in the morning of life, and conjure up in their room brighter visionary scenes of lasting unalloyed joys in another state, shared and enhanced by the society of a being loathful în life, still more loathful in death; this surely cannot be ! diss Let us take a sober view of the matter, and ascribe the prevalence of this rite to the real causes. They are first, mercenary and avaricious motives in relatives and connexions, but I think not to the degree that is generally supposed; secondly, the dread of shame, the apprehension that a widow, but now an infant, or in the vigour of youth, with the passions and appetites strong and the judgment weak, or even more matured in years, may bring infamy and disgrace upon a family by unchastity. This I take to be the most fertile cause; and when the constitutional warmth and voluptuousness of Indian women are considered, and that these are heightened by education and "habit, nay, even by their religious rites and ceremonies, we shall see how much reason there is to apprehend a lapse from virtue. Again; when we know what the consequences are of such a lapse from chastity among them, we shall better understand the desire of a woman's connexions to preclude the possibility of becoming subject to them, by resorting to an extreme measure of prevention. Thirdly, cupidity in the priesthood, conjoined with the éclat attendant on such ceremonies; fourthly, ardent attachment to a deceased husband; fifthly, extraordinary piety; sixthly, a sort of superstitious delusion. Some women of warm imaginations delude themselves into the belief, that in "a prior state of existence they have already once or oftener performed this rite, and that when they shall have repeated it seven times, they then will be admitted into a state of perfect everlasting beatitude; seventhly, pride and Avain glory, which induce some women of aspiring resolute tempers and extraordinary fortitude to submit to this ordeal, because it has been hereditarily observed in their families, or they are resolved, for the éclat of the thing, to establish a precedent in their own persons. It is obvious, that all suttees proceeding from the three first-assigned causes must be constrained and violent; the common mode of conducting the ceremony shews that they are so; that 'they are horrible deliberate murders.

Now we hesitate between two measures: the immediate positive prohibition of the rite, or the permitting of it under such restrictions and precautions as

will insure its been practised with the sanction of, and in strict conformity to, their religion of a

With regard to the first measure, the fitness of it appears very dubious, because the application of force may be found necessary, to restrain the people from a religious rite which they consider either highly, meritorious or obliga tory upon them. The opposing of even religious errors by violence is at all times to be deprecated, more especially when they affect only the individuals deluded by them, and do not disturb the general peace and happiness of the community to which they belong. However, as there are some men of a contrary opinion, who would suppress this practice by any means and at all hazards, and these seem zealous and persevering in their endeavours, and are the most likely to make an impression on the public feelings (I will not say mind), and bias, by and bye, the deliberations of the Legislature on the India question, let us see how this may be attempted.

1

If the Indian Government came to this decision, it might pass a law prohibiting the rite from and after a date to be fixed. To render this effectual a penalty must be annexed, which might declare persons taking an active part in a suttee, performed in the face of the law, liable to be tried for murder; or the heirs of the deceased to legal disabilities, or to forfeiture of goods, or the real property and chattels of the suttee to escheat to the government.A preamble might set forth and fully expose the Hindoo law on this subject; set forth, lament, and condemn the past violations and abuses of it; shew that the rite is barely permitted—not enjoined; that it is far better omitted than observed, because higher rewards are promised in the former than in the latter case; lastly, it might close with ascribing to the humane and fatherly solieitude of the government for a deluded and erring class of its subjects, the origin of the new regulation. For obvious reasons, the law should be made to take effect as soon as possible after passing it. Its introduction should be preceded by the precaution, wherever necessary, of relieving magistrates of particular districts with others whose known character and qualifications afford the government an assurance that in case any discontent or commotion arise out of the measure, it will be allayed without resorting to force. I lay much stress on this precaution, for I know that there are individuals in the service who can prevail upon the people to do any thing with alacrity; whilst others prevail on them to do nothing unless by coercion, or with sullen reluctance. No where are the effects of individual peculiarities, qualities, and address, more strongly exemplified than in the several branches of the East-India Company's service.

A

There is another plan, free from all objections, which the timid or the tolerant can urge, and yet, if I know any thing of human nature, scarcely less efficient than the foregoing in producing an immediate and material diminution in the number of this sacrifice-ultimately, almost, if not intirely, its extinction. It is, to permit the rite, but only in strict accordance with the spirit and the letter of their law: not merely to require this conformity by rules framed with timid caution and never enforced, because of the real or imaginary dread of a revolt, but to enforce it by penal laws firmly and vigorously enforced,

Having taken the precaution of changing magistrates wherever from local causes it may appear necessary, let the government, without making any stir so as to excite the attention or awaken the apprehensions of the people, circulate quietly to magistrates written instructions, accompanied with a clear, comprehensive, concise, compendium of all the texts and authorities relating to this subject, with references to books and authors, in English, in Sungskrit,

and

and in the languages and dialects of the several provinces whither it will be cir culated this for the purposes of rendering magistrates themselves fully conversant with the subject, and enabling them to inform and reason with natives wherever desirable. In each district one spot, and only one, should be appointed for the burning; the preference being given to the Suddur station, unless local circumstances and peculiarities render some place within a convenient distance from the Suddur station more agreeable to the people, whose prejudices and customs on this head should be regarded. Indeed its selection might be left to one or more Hindoos of superior sanctity intelligence,

OV

y and i natives of the district. If circumstances allow of it, this spot should be enclosed by a wall, or a ditch and glacis, or by some other kind of fence, that will effectually exclude the multitude assembled to witness the spectacle, and prevent their interrupting it, taking any part in it, or committing any of those acts of brutal violence which have occasionally been witnessed and recorded by our countrymen. The convicts of a district could easily construct such a barrier free of expense. A wall would be the best, by reason of the effect which solicitude and entire exclusion from observation and the gaze of an assembled multitude would have on the minds and feelings of certain descriptions of devoted victims. A highly elevated rated spacious terrace or mound of earth, with one approach, might answer. But some barrier, I repeat, seems indispensable. Applications for permission to burn herself should be received from the widow only, and in person. A heavy tax, judiciously imposed, as the cost of burning, might in many cases Y cases operate as a bar: but I do not recommend this measure. It should be declared criminal to aid in a suttee unauthorized by the proper authorities; and the persons actually assisting at such should be proceeded against as murderers. Permission obtained, it should be imperatively required of magistrates to superintend personally the performance of the ceremony. In cases of unavoidable absence, they should be authorized to depute their assistants, or any other officer, civil or military, fixed at the station. No one but the nearest Aarest relatives of the deceased, i cluding him who is to be the chief actor in the tragedy and the officiating brahmin, in no case exceeding a small limited number, should be admitted within the area, or permitted to approach the pyre. The victim herself should not be suffered to ascend the pyre until the torch has been applied and the pyre is in a creature state of ignition. Nor should be suffered to aid her ascending it, any unless at her intreaty the relative who applies the torch, and upon whom all the ceremonies devolve by their law. If at the critical moment a woman's fortitude and courage forsake her, and she either cannot resolve to mount the pile, or, unable to endure the flames, descend and quit it, she should then be escorted home in a covered conveyance, and that individual upon whom her care and maintenance becomes a duty by the Hindoo law, should be required to receive and cherish her, and furnish her with the prescribed food and raiment. These ought, however, to be of the plainest kind, be the widow's rank and condition in life what they may. In case he fail in this duty, the widow ought to have an immediate remedy by a summary application to a magistrate. This last duty need not, however, be imposed where the widow has sufficient property of her own. On these occasions a magistrate should quietly and passively superintend the proceeding; then only interfering when the rules for conducting the ceremony are infringed, or to prevent violence or constraint towards the devoted in any stage of the proceeding.

+

in

Though I feel confident of the successful result of the foregoing plan, I can, not but observe, that there is no use in framing rules, however excellent in

them