law against parents sacrificing their own children. In the course of the last six months, one hundred and sixteen women were burnt alive with the bodies of their deceased husbands within thirty miles round Calcutta, the most civilized quarter of Bengal. But independently of their superstitious practices, they are described by competent judges as being of a spirit vindictive and merciless; exhibiting itself at times in a rage and infatuation, which is without example among any other people. But it is not necessary to enter into any detail to prove the degraded state of the Hindoos: for if it were demonstrated that their moral depravity, their personal wretchedness, and their mental slavery, were greater than imagination can conceive, the fact would have no influence on those who now oppose their Christian instruction. For, on the same principle that they withhold instruction from them in their present state, they would deny it, if they were worse. Were the books of the Brahmins to sanction the eating of human flesh, as they do the burning of women alive, the practice would be respected. It would be considered as a solemn rite consecrated by the ancient and sacred prejudices of the people, and the cannibal would be esteemed holy.t From April to October, 1804. See Appendix D. Lord Teignmouth, while President of the Asiatic Society in Bengal, delivered a discourse in which he illustrated the revengeful and pitiless spirit of the Hindoos, by instances which had come within his own knowledge while resident at Benares. In 1791, Soodishter Meer, a Brahmin, having refused to obey a summons issued by a civil officer, a force was sent to compel obedience. To intimidate them, or to satiate a spirit of revenge in himself, he sacrificed one of his own family. "On their approaching his house, he cut off the "head of his deceased son's widow, and threw it out." In 1793, a Brahmin named Ballo, had a quarrel with a man about a field, and, by way of revenging himself on this man, he killed his own daughter. "I became angry, said he, and enraged at his forbidding me to "plough the field, and bringing my own little daughter Apmunya, who was "only a year and a half old, I killed her with my sword." About the same time, an act of matricide was perpetrated by two Brahmins, Beechuck and Adher. These two men conceiving themselves to have been injured by some persons in a certain village, they brought their moth er to an adjacent rivulet, and calling aloud to the people of the village, "Beechuck drew his scymetar, and, at one stroke, severed his mother's "head from the body; with the professed view, as avowed by both parent "and son, that the mother's spirit might forever haunt those who had in"jured them." Asiat. Res. Vol. IV. p. 337. Would not the principles of the Christian religion be a good substitute for the principles of these Brahmins of the province of Benares? It will. perhaps, be observed, that these are but individual instances, True but they prove all that is required. Is there any other barbarous nation on earth which can exhibit such instances? : It is a fact that human sacrifices were formerly offered by the Hin doos and as it would appear, at that period which is fixed by some authors for the æra of their civilization and refinement. 8. During the last thirty years there have been many plans suggested for the better administration of the government of this country; but no system which has not the reformation of the morals of the people for its basis, can ever be effective. The people are destitute of those principles of honesty, truth, and justice, which respond to the spirit of British administra tion; they have not a disposition which is accordant with the tenor of Christian principles. No virtues, therefore, no talents, or local qualification of their governors can apply the most perfect system of government with full advantage to such subjects. Something may be done by civil institution to ameliorate their condition, but the spirit of their superstition has a continual tendency to deterioration. 9. The European who has been long resident in India, looks on the civilization of the Hindoos with a hopeless eye. Despairing, therefore, of intellectual or moral improvement, he is content with an obsequious spirit and manual service. These he calls the virtues of the Hindoo; and, after twenty years' service, praises his domestic for his virtues. 10. It has been remarked, that those learned men who are in the habit of investigating the mythology of the Hindoos, seldom prosecute their studies with any view to the moral or-religious improvement of the people. Why do they not? It is because they think their improvement hardly practicable. Indeed the present circumstances of the people seldom become a subject of their investigation. Though such a number of women sacrifice themselves every year in the vicinity of Calcutta, yet it is rare that a European witnesses the scene, or even hears of the event. At the time that government passed the law which prohibited the drowning of children, or exposing them to sharks and crocodiles at Saugur, there were many intelligent persons in Calcutta who had never heard that such enormities existed. Who cares about the Hindoos, or ever thinks of visiting a village to inquire about their state, or to improve their condition! When a boat oversets in the Ganges, and twenty or thirty of them are drowned, is the event noticed as of any consequence, or recorded in a newspaper, as in England? or when their dead bodies float down the river, are they viewed with other emotions than those with which we behold the bodies of other animals? 11. A few notices of this kind will at once discover to the accurate observer of manners in Europe, the degraded character of the Hindoos in our estimation, whatever may be the What then is the cause of this disregard of the persons and circumstances of the Hindoos? The cause is to be found in the superstition, ignorance, and vices of the Hindoo character; and in nothing else.* cause. • See Appendix I. 12. Now it is certain that the morals of this people, though they should remain subject to the British government for a thousand years, will never be improved by any other means than by the principles of the Christian religion. The moral example of the few English in India cannot pervade the mass of the population. What then is to be expected as the utmost felicity of British administration for ages to come? It is this, that we shall protect the country from invasion, and grant to the inhabitants to manufacture our investments in solemn stillness, buried in personal vice, and in a senseless idolatry. 13. Providence hath been pleased to grant to us this great empire, on a continent where, a few years ago, we had not a foot of land. From it we export annually an immense wealth to enrich our own country. What do we give in return? Is it said that we give protection to the inhabitants, and administer equal laws? This is necessary for obtaining our wealth. But what do we give in return? What acknowledgment to Providence for its goodness has our nation ever made? What benefit hath the Englishman ever conferred on the Hindoo, as on a brother? Every argument brought in support of the policy of not instructing the natives our subjects, when traced to its source, will be found to flow from principles of Deism, or of Atheism, or of Polytheism, and not from the principles of the Christian religion. 14. Is there any one duty incumbent on us as conquerors, toward a conquered people, resulting from our being a Christian nation, which is not common to the ancient Romans or the modern French? If there be, what is it? The Romans and the French observed such delicacy of conduct toward the conquered, on the subject of religion, that they not only did not trouble them with their own religion, but said unto them, "We "shall be of yours." So far did these nations excel us in the policy of not disturbing the faith of the natives." 66 Can any one believe that our Indian subjects are to remain forever under our government involved in ther present barbarism, and subject to the same inhuman superstition? And if there be a hope that they will be civilized, when is it to begin, and by whom is it to be effected? 15. No Christian nation ever possessed such an extensive field for the propagation of the Christian faith, as that afforded to us by our influence over the hundred million natives of Hindoostan. No other nation ever possessed such facilities for the extension of its faith as we now have in the government of a passive people; who yield submissively to our mild sway, reverence our principles, and acknowledge our dominion to be a blessing. Why should it be thought incredible that Providence hath been pleased, in a course of years to subjugate this Eastern empire to the most civilized nation in the world, for this very purpose? 16. The facility of civilizing the natives," some will admit, " is great; but is the measure safe? It is easy to govern the "Hindoos in their ignorance, but shall we make them as wise "as ourselves! The superstitions of the people are no doubt "abhorrent from reason; they are idolatrous in their worship, "and bloody in their sacrifices; but their manual skill is ex"quisite in the labours of the loom; they are a gentle and ob66 sequious people in civil transaction." In ten centuries the Hindoos will not be as wise as the English. It is now perhaps nineteen centuries since human sacrifices were offered on the British altars. The progressive civilization of the Hindoos will never injure the interests of the East India Company. But shall a Christian people, acknowledging a Providence in the rise and fall of empire, regulate the policy of future times, and neglect a present duty; a solemn and imperious duty: exacted by their religion, by their public principles, and by the opinion of the Christian nations around them! Or can it be gratifying to the English nation to reflect, that they receive the riches of the East on the terms of chartering immoral superstition! 17. No truth has been more clearly demonstrated than this, that the communication of Christian instruction to the natives of India is easy; and that the benefits of that instruction, civil as well as moral, will be inestimable; whether we consider the happiness diffused among so many millions, or their consequent attachment to our government, or the advantages resulting from the introduction of the civilized arts. Every thing that can brighten the hope or animate the policy of a virtuous people organizing a new empire, and seeking the most rational means, under the favour of heaven, to ensure its perpetuity; every consideration, we aver, would persuade us to diffuse the blessings of Christian knowledge among our Indian subjects. CHAPTER III. On the impediments to the civilization of the natives.-The philosophical spirit of Europeans formerly an impediment to the civilization of the natives. A 1. CHIEF obstacle to the civilization of the Hindoos during the last fifty years, is accounted by some to have been the unconcern of Europeans in India, particularly the French, as to their moral improvement, and the apathy with which they Beheld their superstitions. This has been called the philoso phical spirit, but improperly; for it is a spirit very contrary to that of true philosophy. The philosophical spirit argues in this manner: "An elephant is an elephant, and a Hindoo is a "Hindoo. They are both such as natare made them. We ought to leave them on the plains of Hindoostan such as we "found them." 2. The philosophical spirit further shews itself in an admiration of the ancient systems of the Hindoos, and of the supposed purity of their doctrines and morals in former times. But truth and good sense have for some years been acquiring the ascendency, and are now amply vindicated by a spirit of accurate investigation, produced by the great encouragement which has been lately afforded to researches into Oriental literature. 3. The College of Fort William will probably illustrate to the world what India is, or ever was; for all the sources of Oriental learning have been opened. The gravity with which some learned disquisitions have been lately conducted in Europe, and particularly in France, respecting Indian science and Indian antiquity, is calculated to amuse us. The passion for the Hindoo Joques seems to have been first excited by a code of Gentoo laws, transmitted with official rec ommendation from this country, and published at home by authority; and yet not by the code itself, but by the translator's preface, in which there are many solemn assertions impugning the Christian revelation, and giving the palm to Hindoo antiquity. The respect due to the code itself seems to have been transferred to this preface, which was written by a young gentleman, who observes, "that he was held forth to the public as (6 an author, almost as soon as he had commenced to be a man;" that he could not translate from the Shanscrit language himself," for that the Pundits who compiled the code, were to a man resolute in rejecting all his solicitations for in"struction in this dialect; and that the persuasion and influence "of the Govenor General (Mr. Hastings) were in vain exer❝ted to the same purpose.' Having then translated the Gen 66 too Laws from a Persian translation, he thinks himself justified in believing, "that the world does not now contain annals "of more indisputable antiquity than those delivered down by "the ancient Brahmins; and that we cannot possibly find grounds to suppose that the Hindoos received the smallest "article of their religion or jurisprudence from Moses; though "it is not utterly impossible that the dotrines of Hindoostan "might have been early transplanted into Egypt, and thus have become familiar to Moses."* Preface to Gentoo Code. |