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we have many who were not in the habit of attending regularly at any place of worship. Our number on the list of candidates for church fellowship is at present seventy, of this number twenty-five are already baptized, and we expect to have fifty members at the first communion in the new chapel. I am happy to say that in many cases prejudices are giving way before the preaching of a crucified Redeemer, and that I now have full meetings in some places where, four months ago, I would not have been well received.

"Although we have not now the outward manifestations of 1859 very frequently (but they have by no means disappeared), yet we believe that the Lord's work is going forward success. fully. My heart is often cheered in visiting a district rather mountainous and thinly inhabited. In travelling thither we are sometimes climbing over rocks of granite, then through brake and furze, until we arrive at an isolated cabin, beneath the shelter of a towering rock of granite. Looking in the distance the eye rests upon heather and peat, with few dwellings visible. Shall we have a meeting here? Where can the people be found? The hour is come. We enter, and there discover a 'seed to serve the Lord'-a cot densely packed with those whose hearts are thirsting for the living God. The service proceeds, and now, drawing to a close, the party do not seem disposed to go. There is a sweet hymn, perhaps some brother prays, and now in leaving frequently those sounds are borne upon the mountain breeze-the sweet melody of hearts made glad by the presence of Him whose favour is life, and whose smile is the sunshine of the believing soul. May we not say that we have evidence of the Lord's presence, and go forward in dependence upon his promise, 'Lo I am with you alway' ?"

CONTRIBUTIONS

Received in behalf of the Baptist Irish Society, from December 19th, to January 18th,

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Middleditch, Rev. C. J.
Rouse, Rev. G. H., M.A.

Brompton, by Rev. J. Bigwood. Suburban
Meeting

Dalston, Smith, R. Esq., by Rev. W. Miall
Kingsgate Chapel, by Rev. F. Wills, Jubilee
Meeting
Walworth-
Balance

Lion Street, by Mrs. Watson,

Brill, Dodwell, Mrs. E.

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1 0 0 Dunfermline

2 16 3 Eyemouth

1 0 0 Edinburgh

1 0 0 Glasgow

0 16 3 Hawick

1 1 0 Kirkcaldy

2 16 8 491

1 8 6

1 10 0

22 7 0

1 7 6

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7 7 0

0 10 6 Leith

1 7 0

Hastings, E. S.

0 10 0

Ipswich, Stoke, by Rev. J. Webb

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Lancashire, by Rev. T. Berry

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42 12 8 .34 0 0

Litttle Houghton, by Miss York

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0

812 3

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6 Legacy-Robson, Rev. C., Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Messrs. E. and W. Paxton, R. Rutherford, and
G. Roberts, Executors. Balance, less Legacy
Duty

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Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by Rev. A. Livingstone. 17 15 0 Norwich, by Mrs J. B. Smith 19 0 0 10 0

The thanks of the Committee are presented to Mrs. Risdon of Pershore, for a parcel of useful articles for Mr. Eccles; to Miss Bumpus, of Northampton, for the sum of £2, for the poor of Mr. Eccles' church; to Mrs. Beetham of Cheltenham, for a parcel of clothing, and the sum of £1, sent direct to Mr. Berry, of Athlone; to Mrs. James Hall, and friends at Canterbury for a Box of Clothing, and also to M. A, H., for the sum of ten shillings, in behalf of the Agent, eighty-four years old." The kind friend last mentioned states that her donation was prompted by the acknowledgment of a similar contribution in the Chronicle for November, and expresses her hope that others will be induced, seeing the acknowledgment now made, to contribute for the relief of the aged and afflicted Christian referred to. Being too late for the December Chronicle, the letter of M. A. H. was inserted in the Freeman newspaper, but in vain. No further contributions have been received in behalf of the poor old man whose Christian character has been well maintained through a long life, and whose present sufferings and destitution might well commend him to the sympathy and kindness of brethren in Christ. Relief of this kind is greatly needed. Almost every Agent would be greatly assisted in his work by having such means of alleviating the distress of the people committed to him. Some especially require it. One says, "If friends send you any apparel &c. for our poor, it is pressingly needed here." Another says, "If you have any parcels, will you kindly think of us? I never saw so much distress." Will any friends send a good supply of cast-off clothing for the destitute poor at the Society's Stations? The Secretary will gladly take charge of such contributions, if sent to the Mission House; or will promptly supply any information required by friends who would prefer to send direct. February and March are months of severe suffering.

BAPTIST

THE

MAGAZINE,

MARCH, 1864.

THE ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES IN INDIA.

ONE of the most interesting aspects in which the establishment of British supremacy in India may be regarded, is that which is presented by the extinction of human sacrifices. We find them recorded with approbation in the most ancient Hindoo epic, and they have been identified from time immemorial with the genius of Hindooism. Amidst all the revolutions to which the continent of India has been subject, these inhuman practices appear to have been perpetrated without any intermission in its various provinces, though in diversified forms. When we first appeared in the country as a political power, we found them in full vigour -Brahmins habitually employed in destroying their relatives, even in the holy city of Benares-mothers sacrificing their children at Saugor, in fulfilment of religious vowssons kindling the funeral pile which was to consume their living mothers -and devotees casting themselves under the wheels of Jugurnauth's

car.

It was reserved for the British Government to bring this tragedy of superstition to a close, though for a time our public functionaries were regardless of their high and

This

sacred vocation. For more than forty years, those who were placed at the head of affairs exhibited the utmost indifference to the existence of these inhuman sacrifices, which they regarded as an integrant part of the religion of the country, with which it was not their province to meddle. If at any time the subject was forced on their notice, they justified their noninterference by adverting to the danger of exciting discontent in the minds of the natives. The claims of humanity were smothered by the dread of damaging the interests of the Company. heartless policy would appear extraordinary, if we had not a corresponding example of it at the same period in this country, regarding the atrocities of the slave trade, the abolition of which was continually opposed, because it was considered at variance with our national interests. It was not till the year 1795 that the first blow was given to this bloody superstition in India, by prohibiting the destruction of females at Benares. But the inhabitants of that city, the citadel of Hindooism, and always the seat of disaffection in the north-west, manifested no hos

tility to this prohibition, though they subsequently revolted against our Government on the imposition of a house tax. A clear proof was thus obtained that no political danger was likely to attend our interposition in the cause of humanity, and the moral courage of the British rulers acquired new strength. Accordingly, seven years after, Mr. Udny, the member of Council, and Dr. Carey united their efforts to induce Lord Wellesley to deal with the sacrifice of children at Saugor, and a law was passed to prohibit the practice. A A hundred thousand pilgrims were ordinarily assembled there at the annual festival: and in the midst of that great assembly, it was announced that Government had thought fit to interdict the offering of children, under severe penalties. The order was obeyed without hesitation, and without creating the smallest disturbance. Soon after the province of Orissa was annexed to the British territories, and the most strenuous efforts were made, and with signal success, to prevent devotees sacrificing themselves under the wheels of Jugurnauth's

car.

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But although the country had exhibited an unequivocal acquiescence in these humane proceedings, the Government shrunk, for quarter of a century, from the duty of dealing summarily with the more atrocious rite of female immolation. The Hindoos considered it the glory of their religious system, that it stifled the love of life and the voice of humanity, and provided seven hundred victims annually for the funeral pile; and the public functionaries in India and in England were staggered by the apparent array of national feeling in favour of this brutal practice, not discerning that it owed

more than half its strength to their hesitation. Attempts were made, by a timid legislation, to regulate the rite and reduce the number of victims, but, as in the case of the slave trade, it was found to compromise the character of the Government, and to aggravate the evil. While the Court of Directors were temporizing with this enormity, and looking to the slow progress of knowledge and civilization to eradicate it, Lord William Bentinck landed in Calcutta as GovernorGeneral," with a full sense," as he said, "of the dreadful responsi bility hanging over his head in this world and the next, if he, as the head of the Government of India consented to the continuance of this practice for one moment longer' than could be helped. He was so thoroughly in earnest as to consider even the question of our political security subordinate to the claims of humanity, and on the 9th of December, 1829, passed the evermemorable act, which peremptorily prohibited Suttees, and attached the severest penalties to the crime of aiding or abetting them. To consummate this deed of mercy, he had not only to set at defiance the hos tility-with a small exception-of the territorial, the priestly, and the mercantile interests in the native community, but to encounter the morbid and Brahminized sensibilities of some of the most eminent European servants of Government, headed by the great Orientalist, Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson, who reprobated "this direct and unequivocal interference with the Hindoo religion." Under his auspices, a petition was drawn up to the Privy Council, denouncing the proceedings of Lord William Bentinck, and demanding the restoration of the privilege of burning widows, on the impertinent assumption that it

was included within the scope of that principle of toleration which the British Government had pledged itself to maintain in India. The appeal, though supported by the forensic talent of Dr. Lushington, was dismissed; the rite was irrevo. cably abolished; and, to borrow the line of an Indian poet

"The Ganges flowed, unblooded to the sea."

dily reduced to submission. It was this expedition which brought us for the first time in contact with the Khonds and revealed a system of human sacrifices more revolting than any recorded in the annals of human cruelty and superstition. In order to propitiate the earth deity, and to obtain rich crops, these savages were in the habit of sacrificing human victims, termed Meriahs. To render the sacrifice efficacious, it was necessary that the victims should be purchased; but, although they might be of any sect, or caste, orage, men were generally preferred as being of higher price, the value of the offering being in proportion to its cost. The Meriahs were often procured from their friends or relatives when reduced to distress, or suffering from famine, but were generally stolen from the plains by a gang of professional kidnappers. The Meriah women were frequently allowed to live till they had borne children to Khond fathers, and these children were reared for sacrifice. For a month prior to the act of immolation, there was much revelry, during which the intoxicated votaries danced around the victim, who was adorned with chaplets of flowers. The day before the tragedy he was stupified with drugs, and bound to the foot of a post, while the assembled mul. titude danced round him to the

The latest interference with these barbarous rites has been exercised in the case of the Meriah sacrifices, a report of which has just been published by General Campbell in a "Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years' Service among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan, for the suppression of Human Sacrifices." It is from this interesting work we have gleaned the following particulars. Khondistan-the abode of the Khonds-is a large province in the hilly portion of the ancient kingdom of Orissa, which is known to the Christian publie of England as the sacred land of the god Jugurnauth. Orissa became a British province in 1803, but it was only in the lowlands and in the district of Cuttack that our ordinary system of administration was established. The region in the hills, inhabited by various wild tribes, remained under the management of their own chiefs, with whom we held little intercourse, and never interfered except when they became refrac-sound of their barbarous music, tory, and refused to make good the tribute imposed on them. Taxation was, in fact, the only element of civilization which we introduced among them. Khondistan was divided into several principalities, each under some Orissa ruler, one of whom, the chief of Goomsoor, about the year 1835, resisted the British authorities, when a large force was sent against him from Madras, and the country was spee

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and addressed the earth deity—“ O God, we offer thee this sacrifice; give us good crops, seasons, and health." On the day of the sacrifice, they marched in procession round the village, bearing the victim in their arms, and then conveyed him to the post, where a hog was slain, and its blood allowed to flow into a pit dug for the purpose. The Meriah, who had been again drugged, was then thrown in and

no

smothered to death; the priest pro- promise-"May the earth refuse ceeded to cut out a piece of flesh its produce; may rice choke me; and bury it near the village idol. may water drown me, and may the The multitude followed his example, tiger devour me and my children, and hastened with the bloody if I break the oath I now take, for prize to their respective villages, myself and my people, to abstain and buried the flesh on the same for ever from the sacrifice of human day near their local idol. But this beings." But this beings." One hundred victims, was the least inhuman mode of con- destined for sacrifice, were then summating the sacrifice; among surrendered, and from that day this some of the tribes the flesh was cut bloody rite has ceased in Goomsoor, from the living victim. The same happy result followed the exertions of Captain Campbell in the neighbouring districts of Boad and Kimedy. Council after council was convened, and there were endless discussions. No little reluctance was manifested to give up a practice, on which the fertility of their fields, and their own means of subsistence was supposed to depend, but Captain Campbell pressed on them the stern and inflexible determination of the Government to extinguish the practice, by persuasion if possible; if not, by compulsion; and thus, with admirable patience, tact and perseverance, by alternate coaxing and menacing, and on one occasion by a demonstration of force, he succeeded in rescuing all the victims in these and other districts, and putting an end to the practice. For thirteen entire years was he employed in this great mission of humanity, visiting every nook and corner of a region which is considered fatal to European constitutions, delivering those who " were appointed to death," and exacting the most solemn pledges from the chiefs and people to relinquish the practice for ever. In 1854, the government considered his mission completed, and withdrew the agency as being no longer necessary, During the period of his operations, the number of victims rescued from destruction amounted to 1,506-the females being about a tenth in excess of the males. A

The British Government sooner became cognizant of this practice than it was resolved to adopt the most energetic measures to extinguish it. A distinct and costly agency was established for this purpose in the hills, and General-then Captain-Campbell, who had acquired a good knowledge of the country and the people during the campaign, was nominated the representative of the government in Khondistan. He commenced his crusade against the Meriah abomination in December, 1837, by convening an assembly of the Goomsoor chiefs, to whom he explained that they were no longer under a native chief, but under the British government, which abhorred the rite, and was determined to extinguish it. They were desired to consult their people on the subject, and communicate the result to the Commissioner, At the second conference they informed him that, though they had always followed the customs handed down to them by their ancestors, they felt that it was imperative on them to obey the Great Government to which they were now subject, and that they were prepared to abandon human sacrifices, and, like the inhabitants of the plain, sacrifice animals to obtain good crops. Then seating themselves on tiger skins, they bound themselves by a solemn

h to the performance of their

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