consequence has uniformly been, that in addition to other evils, resulting from this measure, these practices have rather increased than diminished. Of this the history of India affords abundant proof: and although it may not follow, but that the authority of a Christian Government, like the British, might compel respect to its decrees, there are many weighty considerations to be taken into view, before this Government regard these attempts as examples for imitation, rather than beacons for avoidance. But there are fortunately some, which the history of the past, and the testimony of living witnesses alike support, and which appear to us clearly and unequivocally to dictate the line of policy to be pursued. The evil does not extend so widely, as many are apt to imagine. In Southern India it is altogether unknown. In the territories of the Peishwa, before we had possession of his country, it had altogether disappeared, according to the reports, furnished by the magistrates to the Bombay Government. In the Concan the instances are extremely rare; and although the natives of that part of India are represented as likely to submit without a murmur to a positive prohibition, the daily decrease of the practice, and the feeling with which it is said to be regarded, place beyond a doubt the expediency of not interfering.

So rare are Sutties in Central India, that in the whole of that country, inhabited as it has been by the strictest sects of the Hindus, there have not been for the last 20 years above three or four annually. To this fact, we have the best authority we can desire-the testimony of Sir John Malcolm.

It is in the province of Bengal, and the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta itself, that the Suttee is to be seen most frequently, in all its dreadful horrors. It was not to be supposed, that such spectacles could be witnessed by a Christian community without attracting observation, and exciting a desire, if possible, to put a stop to them: but we are persuaded, that had there not been a Christian community to see and notice them, Sutties would by this time have been nearly as rare in Bengal, as in Central India. When the attention of Government was strongly called to this subject a few years ago, steps were taken with the view of checking it, while at the same time the rule of respecting the religious prejudices of the Hindus was not lost sight of: and certain directions were issued to magistrates of districts, to be observed on every occasion of a Hindu widow expressing a desire to burn with her deceased husband. It was snspected, that the sacrifice took place in instances, in which the Veds forbade it; and that it was not always voluntary on the part of the victim. Several points of Hindu law, in regard to this custom, were submitted to learned pundits of the Sudder Dewanny, and the regulations and directions framed according to their exposition of this law. The result has unfortunately been, that since 1816, and the interference of the police officers, under authority of Government, Sutties have increased in number. In 1815 they amounted, by the reports transmitted to the Nizamut Adalut, to 378; in 1816 to 442; 1817 to 707; and in 1818 to 839.

We notice, however, with the highest satisfaction, that according to returns for the year 1819, 20, 21, and 22, the number of these cruel

sacrifices is again diminishing. This happy change must be ascribed at once to the considerate conduct of the Government, in regard to the religious practices of their native subjects, and to the progress of better ideas, even among the lower classes, in consequence of European intercourse and influence. The Sutties in 1819 are stated at 650; in 1820, 597; in 1821, 654; and in 1822, 583; the latter year, as compared with 1818, giving a diminution in the number of Sutties of no less an amount than 256.

Our correspondent appears to incline to the opinion, that in many of the cases of Suttee, the sacrifice has not hitherto been voluntary on the part of the victim. So far as our information goes, we are sorry to entertain the opposite opinion. It does not appear, from the papers, which were laid before the House of Commons on this subject in 1821, that even any very powerful influence is used with the widow, to persuade her to burn and in several instances, there is evidence of both the Brahmins and the family doing every thing to dissuade her from her purpose. Were there a positive law in the Veds, enjoining the widow to burn, this conduct on the part of the Brahmins would not be very rereconcilable with the respect, and obedience they owe their sacred books: but in fact, there is no law in the Shastras about Sutties-there is a recommendation : and the object, as it appears to us, of Ram Mohun Roy's tract is to shew, what he may be, and we believe is perfectly right in, that there are other customs or practices, more specially recommended than cremation. We question much, when he appears to go beyond this, whether he does not injure, rather than benefit the cause, which he advocates.

It has been often asserted, that the Brahmins, and particularly the Gooroos, or household priests, have a strong pecuniary interest in bringing about Sutties; and that with this sordid view, they do all in their power to feed the fanaticism, which leads to them. This may be doubted, and the assertion certainly rests on nothing like proof adduced by those, who bring it forward. It is well known, that Sutties are most prevalent anongst the lower and poorest classes, and it is difficult to see, how the Brahmins could contrive to reap any great harvest in this quarter. The same remark applies to the assertion, that it is the relations of the widow, who for the sake of dividing her share of the deceased's estate, urge her to the act of suicide; but who, in the event of there being children of the deceased, as is most frequently the case, could derive no benefit from the widow's portion: and certainly, before we attach credit to these charges, we must have more proof of their being well founded, than has yet been brought forward. We shall not go so far as to say, that these charges are as gratuitous, as they are false; but we fear much, that there is little need of influence, where the mind is so strongly impressed, as it must be, before selfimmolation can be determined on.

It has been hoped, that the increasing number of Sutties in Bengal, as appears on the face of the reports, is in some measure to be ascribed to the greater attention now paid to noticing them, when they occur, by the police: but we are not without our fears, and we have heard it asserted by those, who have given attention to the subject,

that an increase of these cruel sacrifices has every where followed the introduction of our regulations. May we not have unwittingly enforced a publicity, which has given attraction to the act? May not the curiosity and feelings of the Hindus be now more keenly alive to such an occurrence? May we not have given the widow a stage, on which to earn notice and applause, instead of being, as heretofore, burned in solitude and silence? These are questions deserving the deepest attention from Government, in framing measures for districts, where fortunately there prevails an opinion among the natives themselves, founded on the well known humanity and justice of the English power, that the practice will not only not be countenanced, but might not even be tolerated— and where this opinion is stated as having contributed, among other causes, to the almost disappearance of this cruel rite. We hope and trust, that the late reference of points of Hindu law, to the learned pundits in our employment, will not be found to have lessened this salutary apprehension, and thus defeated the humane and benevolent object Government had in view. It is unfortunately one of those cases where example has a mighty influence; and if under these regulations the practice is really increasing, it cannot be doubted, that fanatics will increase with it, and it may not be easy to see, to what extent the evil may yet proceed.

It

Are we asked, how is the cruel practice of the Suttee to be abolished? we would say, that EDUCATION alone can eradicate the lastwe would fain add, the expiring embers of this inhuman custom. is the opinion of the first Oriental scholars amongst us, and the best acquainted with the character of the natives, that if Hindu women could peruse their own Shastras, even they would be less disposed to reverence the duties, which they now believe them to teach, as so imperative upon their sex. The evil is rooted in the education, which they now receive, and in their being taught from their infancy, that to die with their husbands is at once the highest obligation, under which they are placed on earth, and a sure and certain road to heaven for them, and all their relations: and were not nature superior to superstition, even among the Hindus, we should have to marvel at the very limited number of these meritorious sacrifices. Let us strengthen these feelings of nature in the many, by every means in our power; and while we lament the fanaticism, which in this few is able to overcome them, it appears, under every view of the case which we can take, the wiser, the safer, and the more truly humane policy, to abstain alike from every thing that can imply even indifference to, much more approbation of, so cruel a practice; and from that direct interference of authority to prohibit the Suttee, for which, indeed, our power may be prepared, but which our native subjects are not yet sufficiently enlightened to regard in any other view, than as religious persecution.-ED.

Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. 3 vols. 4to. London. 1819-1822.

[Continued from p. 49.]

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.-The situation of the Bombay Society is highly propitious to investigations into the religious creed and history of the followers of Zoroaster. For almost all that we know of these subjects, we are indebted to Surat and Bombay. It was chiefly from the first that Du Perron collected his materials, and it appears that a still more ample harvest has been gathered in the latter by Professor Raske. (Revue Encyclopedique, July 1823.) We have every reason to expect, that our countrymen should not be less ready than foreigners to avail themselves of the advantages within their reach, and may demand from their association a full detail and just appreciation of the system of the Parsis, and the books by which it is inculcated.

The Transactions of the Society do not leave us entirely disappointed. We have a perspicuous, and, as far as it extends, a satisfactory dissertation on the subject, from the pen of Mr. Erskine. This occurs in the second volume, in the form of two letters to Sir John Malcolm. However much we may respect the latter gentleman, we should have thought it more dignified in Mr. Erskine to have addressed the public or the Society. There is a sort of literary flirtation in this interchange of civility, that does not become the sober, or even be it, dry researches of antiquarianism; and, what is more objectionable, the form cannot fail to cramp the execution. A letter, whatever be its dimensions, requires compression; and that the epistolographer cannot dilate, even when it is necessary, is clear, when Mr. Erskine himself is obliged to confine his communication to " rapid views, short sketches, and brief indications"-a style of writing equally unworthy of his powers, and of such themes as "the ancient languages of Persia-the comparative value of the Greek and Persian historians the tenets of the modern Parsis, and of the works ascribed to Zoroaster-and proofs of the antiquity of many of their peculiar doctrines"-the topics on which the two letters in question treat, in a manner that makes us only regret the brevity of the writer, and the unlucky channel he has selected for communicating the results of his researches.

"

The account of the ancient language of Persia is particularly open to these observations: it adds very little to Malcolm's view of them, (History of Persia,) which was taken from the Ferhang Jehangiri, or to the previous investigations of Du Perron, (Mem. de l'Academie,) derived from the same source. That work, in a truly oriental spirit, multiplies indi viduals unnecessarily, and confounds provincial dialects with national forms of speech. Of the seven languages, the Farsi, Deri, Pehlevi, Hervi, Sejzi, Zabuli, and Soghdi, the last four are the Persian of Herat, Segistan, Zabulistan, (or Kandahar,) and Sogd, (or Bokhara.) The Farsi was the Persian of Fars Proper, but it is not inaccurately applicable as a generic term to all the dialects. Pehlevi, although itself a dialect of Persian, that of the Pehlu, the Arabian or Chaldean border, had undergone such alterations, from the introduction of Arabic and Chaldee, as to have become almost a distinct tongue. The Deri, it is usually supposed, is only the polished Persian, that of the Deri Shah, the Durbar, or royal gate, or, in our idiom, court. In fact, therefore, we may consider that there were but two spoken languages in the ancient Persian empire, the Farsi, the Persian of the eastern, and the Pehlevi, that of the western provinces. Of the Zend we shall have further occasion to take notice.

With regard to the comparative value of the Greek and Persian historians, we have already had occasion to offer our sentiments. Those of Mr. Erskine perfectly accord with them. The Persian writings, he observes, are historical romances; the Grecian present the fragments of genuine history. He has also shewn, that the materials to which it has been supposed Tabari and Firdausi had access, were of much less extent and value than has generally been supposed. We shall not, however, dwell upon the topic, but proceed to the more immediate objects of our present attention.

There can be no question with respect to the remote date. of the fundamental tenets of the religion of the Parsis. The detail of testimonies collected by Du Perron, and quoted by Mr. Erskine, which extends through fifteen centuries, from Herodotus to Photius, establishes indisputably the permanence of many of the opinions and practices still retained. It does not follow, however, that the ritual and creed have undergone no