caste Hindoos would embark on board ship: but now, the Seapoys are transported across the ocean, to any distance to which their services may be required, without any objection being expressed on their part, and, on the part of Government, with perfect indifference as to their distinction of caste. And when they return from these expeditions, they are received again by their friends, without the slightest hesitation.

For a long time, the Seapoys refused to wear an uniformity of dress, until it was thought almost dangerous to propose it. But the late Lieutenant-General, Sir Henry Cosby, in the early part of his military career in South India, succeeded in prevailing upon them to receive the uniform which has continued to be worn by them to the present. day*.

Numerous other instances could I give, in proof that the Hindoo's "prejudices" are not ' insurmountable;" particularly, as in the Seapoy's case, when his interest is concerned. But probably the reader will begin to think me prolixt. Trifling as some of these cases

Vide East-India Military Calendar.

+ For arguments of greater weight in proof of the practicability of overcoming "the prejudices" &c. of the Hindoos, vide Lord Teignmouth's "Considerations" &c.; wherein it is proved,

"that

may appear to him, yet the whole system of Hindooism is composed of trifles: and every one acquainted with the importance which they still attach to prejudices and customs equally insignificant, will acknowledge, that there is nothing whatever in their civil or religious predilections, from which they may not be expected, with the same facility, and with as little danger to our Eastern Dominion, to deviate, when the moral state of European Society in India shall improve, and the natives become better acquainted with our scientific and literary productions.

I shall dismiss this part of the question with a reply to what the Abbé Dubois seems to consider an unanswerable objection against every attempt to interfere with the long-established practices of the Hindoo. It is in the case "of the burning of the Hindoo Widows on the pile of their deceased husbands.' This he calls a "stale subject!!" So is that of the Slave Trade. And many of the advocates for this abominable traffic would gladly

"that millions of Hindoos have been converted to the Maho. medan Faith; and that hundreds of thousands have embraced the doctrines of Christianity"—(viz. within the communion of the Syrian Church, in Travancore; the Roman-Catholic Church, in various parts of India; and the Protestant Church, in South India and Ceylon: (pp. 22-28.) Of these Christian Converts, I shall have frequent occasion to speak in the sequel.

join the Abbé in endeavouring to pour contempt upon the question so odious to their respective feelings (feelings! did I say? Can such men possess feelings that are not degrading to human-nature?)—and persuade us to abandon the "subject," because it is "stale!" If this be argument, then I demand of the Abbé, upon the plea of consistency alone, the abandonment of his outcry against every interference with the customs of India, however inhuman or absurd: for WHAT subject can be more stale than this!

This objection might be confidently left to be answered by the sympathies of our common nature. I pray to Almighty God, never so to abandon Christians of the West to the prince of darkness, as to permit him to extinguish every spark of humanity that yet glows in our bosoms! While the blood of so many victims to Eastern Superstition calls aloud to Heaven for pity, may we open our ears to their cry, and flee to their relief! May the protracted continuance of this abominable custom, instead of blunting the edge of our feelings, only increase their poignancy!

M. Dubois acknowledges" that these nefarious sacrifices have increased, of late years:" and he ascribes it, "in a great measure," to

what he calls "the intemperate zeal” of the late Mr. Ward, "and that of many of his associates in the work of reform;" which, he says, roused "the zeal of the Hindoos" "to a determined spirit of opposition and resistance."

This insinuation is illiberal and unfounded! We learn, from the " Papers relating to Hindoo Widows and voluntary immolations," published, in 1821, by order of the House of Commons, that the number of Suttees has, indeed, of late years increased. In the province of Bengal, there were—

Of the different causes assigned for this increase, the following is the most probable. It having come to the knowledge of Government, that many widows were burnt at a very tender age, in a state of pregnancy, and under other circumstances contrary to the Hindoo Laws relating to the subject, an order was issued to prevent the burning of any widow, until the Magistrate had ascertained, that she was above the age of 15, and offered herself a willing sacrifice to the flames. Prior to this regulation, many families refrained from burning their widows, in consequence of the odium which Europeans were

known to attach to those who assisted at those ceremonies. But now, whenever they took place, they seemed in a measure to have the sanction of the Local Government: the natives were, therefore, no longer ashamed of the practice, and hence the increase of these sacrifices. But how unjust to charge the Missionaries with the guilt of occasioning this increase! Whatever were the cause of it, Missionaries were in no way concerned: and had the practice been peremptorily abolished, no such consequences would have followed. To M. Dubois, this "appears a measure too pregnant with danger to be attempted." And he argues, that, "in the moral order, as well as the physical, we are often reduced to the sad necessity of tolerating great evils, not to be exposed to greater ones." Had the Marquis Wellesley, Governor Duncan, and Colonel Walker, consulted with him upon the expediency of abolishing Infanticide, he would, doubtless, have reasoned in the same way against the propriety and safety of the attempt. The natives were as aversé to relinquish that practice, as they can possibly be to refrain from burning their widows: and yet none but the happiest consequences resulted from its prohibition.

The fact of the diminution of Suttees in