children," says Mr. Kingsbury, "have been inhumanly murdered by their parents among the Choctaws. Sometimes the mother digs a grave, and buries the babe alive soon after it is born. Sometimes she puts it to death by stamping on its breast, by strangling it, or by knocking it on the head." A particular tribe of the Hindoos, denominated Rajpoots have long been in the practice of murdering all their female children."Not one survives. The boys marry in the tribe next in rank to them." Other classes among the Hindoos sometimes sacrifice their helpless infants to the gods; sometimes suspend them in baskets from the limbs of trees, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by birds of prey; sometimes they drown them in the sacred rivers; and sometimes they cast them to the monsters of thedeep, and willingly remain to be witnesses of their destruction. A crime similar to those of this class was common among the ancient idolaters; who consumed their children in fire, as a sacrifice to Moloch. Another species of murder which is practised among the heathen, is that of their aged and helpless parents. The Greenlanders are represented as destroying their aged mothers, by burying them alive. The natives of some of the Asiatic Islands not only put their parents to death, but even eat them. It is said also of the Chinese, that when their parents become old and helpless, they frequently confine them in solitary places, and leave them to perish with hunger. Still another description of murder which is found among the heathen, is that of persons suspected of witchcraft. It is stated by Crantz, in his history of Greenland, that upon the occurrence of any unusual or very unpleasant event among the natives, some harmless woman is almost sure to be stoned, drowned, or cut in pieces, for the supposed crime of witcheraft. Murders of this character have formerly been common, among several tribes of the American Indians. Other nations of heathens are in the habit of murdering nearly all their friends, when they believe them exposed to great worldly calamities. An instance of this occurred recently on our own continent; when, as Lewis and Clarke inform us, a tribe of Indians put to death many of their women and *children, to save them from the ravages of a contagious disease. 2. Suicide is a species of cruelty, which is not only practised, but commended and enjoined, in the dark and benighted regions of the earth. Thousands in India, have put an end to their existence, by retiring into dens and forests, and exposing themselves to all manner of sufferings, in the hope, as they pretend, of obtaining deliverance from the debasing influence of matter, and of becoming absorbed in the spiritual substance of the Deity. Other thousands have prostrated themselves under the wheels of their Idols, and been instantly crushed. Others have drowned them. selves in the sacred waters. Others have consented and even chosen, from various reasons, to be entombed alive. While a host of others have ascended the funeral pile of their husbands, and been burnt to death. It has been estimated by Dr. Ward, that more than two thousand widows are annually con sumed in this way in British India As many as six every day in the British possessions alone are, as he expresses it," roasted alive."-If it should be questioned in respect to these, whether their death is the more properly suicide or murder; I feel satisfied that it comprises the guilt of both: For if the miserable sufferers are truly voluntary in dying (though it is far from being certain that they usually are) still they do not fall literally by their own hands. - 3. Another kind of cruelty, common among those who inhabit the dark places of the earth, is self- torture. The Roman Catholic religion enjoins various species of such torture, as a means of obtaining the pardon of sin. With this view, persons are not unfrequently seen, even in Italy, loaded with chains and crosses, and unmercifully lashing themselves at every step. Some torture themselves to gain the reputation of superior sanctity. For this purpose, many have forcibly compressed their heads into singular shapes ; while others hold their arms erect, till they are incapable of holding them in any other posture.-Numbers torture themselves, for the purpose of obtaining alms. Instances might be mentioned of those who, in order to effect this object, have walked about with burning coals upon their heads.-False religions of several descriptions encourage, if they do not enjoin, long and perilous pilgrimages. These pilgrimages are always attended with the greatest fatigue and privations; and frequently with starvation, disease, and death." Dr. Ward once saw a man making successive prostrations to Jugunnath, and thus measuring the distance with his body from some place in the North, down to the temple of the idol, which stands nearly at the Southern extremity of India." 66 . At one of the annual Hindoo festivals, "many persons are suspended in the air, by large hooks thrust through the integuments of the back, and swung round for a quarter of an hour, in honour of their Deity. Others have their sides pierced, and cords are introduced between the skin and the ribs, which are drawn backwards and forwards, while these victims of superstition dance through the streets. Others cast themselves from a stage ten feet high upon open knives inserted in packs of cotton. Often one of these knives enters the body, when the poor wretch is carried away to expire. On the same occasion, numbers have a hole cut through the middle of their tongue, in which they insert a stick, or any thin substance, and thus dance through the streets. At the close of the festival, these devotees dance on burning coals, their feet being uncovered. 4. Nearly all the dark regions of the earth are distinguished for the cruelties which are practised upon females. In the early days of the Roman Commonwealth, men were allowed by law to put their wives to death, for no greater crime than excessive drinking. It was a law of the ancient Saxons, that he who hurt or killed a woman, should receive only half the punishment exacted for inflicting the same injury on a man. In the greater part of the Eastern world, women of rank are now obliged to live in almost perpetual confinement. They seldom appear abroad, and never unless under the most rigorous regulations. If they walk, they are closely veiled and guarded; or if they ride, their carriages are secured with bolts and bars of iron, at the same time, females of the lower classes are doomed to perpetual drudgery. They perform in some places nearly all the labor. Many are compelled to work with an infant on the back, while their husbands in all probability are gaming." They have been seen even "dragging the plough and harrow." While their husbands rode, they have been seen following "many a weary mile on foot, and carrying on their backs provision for the journey."-In al 66 most all the Southern and Eastern parts of the other continent, wives are never treated as companions, or equals, but rather as slaves, or as beasts of burthen. In many places, they are beaten, without either mercy, or hope of redress; and by their unfeeling husbands or fathers, are not unfrequently sold into perpetual slavery. Females, born in Christien lands, and favored with the blessings of civilization, can never fully estimate their indebtedness to the gospel, or be sufficiently grateful for their privileges. They owe it to the precepts of the Son of God-they owe it to the benign influence of his religion, that they are not as much degraded, and as much abused, as their miserable sisters among the heathen. It is entirely through the power of this heavenly religion, that "man loses his fierceness, and woman her chains"-that "each becomes blessed in the other, and God glorified in both." 5. The dark places of the earth are remarkable for their cruel methods of trial and punishment.-Of cruel and capricious trials, I cannot furnish a more striking instance, than by directing your attention to the bloody Inquisition. Here persons, without being informed of their offence, are compelled to be their own accusers; and they are put successively to the most excruciating tortures, till they acknowledge all that their persecutors require. The modes of punishment in heathen and barbarous countries have been various; but all of them marked with the most atrocious cruelty.-In ancient Rome, offenders were often exposed in the Amphitheatre to the fury of wild beasts, while thousands beheld and seemed to enjoy the spectacle of seeing them torn in pieces. In other places, and in modern |