inhabitants of the low country; and pointed to the aid which had been rendered in the rescue of victims, and the condign punishment of kidnappers. But all these and such like measures he regarded as merely of an isolated, desultory and inadequate character. They could never cope with the real evil; or of themselves suffice for the attainment of our object. In looking back on all the statements and reports laid before Government, apart from those of Captain Macpherson, he could not find amongst them all, any proposal that amounted to any thing like a connected, fixed, or definite plan. Indeed there was a total lack of such information as might enable the Government or any of its agents to lay down any thing like a settled plan or system of operations. Hence the origin of the proposition to depute a special agent to visit the Khond districts-one grand end of such appointment being the collecting of the requisite information. In his original Report of 1841, and still more, in his two recent reports of April and August 1842, Captain Macpherson had succeeded in conveying much more definite and precise information as to the social condition of the Khonds, and of the limits of the various superstitions which prevailed amongst them than we were before at all acquainted with. Nothing could prove more clearly than these reports, the inutility of partial and desultory efforts, and the absolute necessity of well digested and systematic ones. Towards the formation and final adoption of such measures, these valuable and highly interesting reports furnished invaluable materials, as well as admirable suggestions. The introduction of our influence among the Zemindar-Rajahs, with the Khond Chiefs and their people; in other words, the establishment of our authority, as supreme and paramount, in these wild tracts, was clearly pointed out as an object to be steadily and perseveringly, but gradually and cautiously pursued. We were to appear in the first instance not as imperious innovators, but as mediators, or rather arbitrators or umpires-interposing our good offices when suitable opportunities offered-settling quarrels and disputes, and composing feuds between the various chiefs, and directly between the hill tribes themselves. The influence thus acquired was to be directed to the one great object in view, viz. the abolition of the sacrifice. And Captain Macpherson's Reports distinctly pointed out the mode in which such influence was to be directed, as well as the time and the place in which it might be most beneficially exercised. The discovery of the non-sacrificing and infanticidal tribes, as well of tribes who practised neither of these detestable rites, together with the division of the country into distinct tracts with reference to these peculiarities, were justly regarded as of the first importance. The success which attended Captain Macpherson's proceedings in the two great Khond districts of Bara Mútah and Athara Mútah was warmly hailed as confirmatory of the soundness of the general views set forth in the author's reports, and highly encouraging as regarded future efforts of a similar description elsewhere. Verbal pledges had indeed been often given before, but, it did not escape the sagacity of Lord Elphinstone and his council, that these had been marked with singular deficiencies. The grand omission in every former compact with these tribes, was, the absence of all acknowledgement on our part of the duty of affording protection and justice to the Khonds, and on their side, the duty of submission and obedience to the Government; while in the proposals made to Captain Macpherson by the Khonds of Bara Mútah and Athara Mútah, which were universally agreed to by them, this omission had been fully supplied. Formerly too, the pledges had uniformly been given or extorted under the influence of fear; they were, therefore, involuntary and forced whereas, now, they were proffered as the result of full deliberation and discussion; they were, for the first time, really voluntary and free. And whether these conditions would be faithfully observed or not, a spontaneous acknowledgment had been acquired of our right to interfere, which the tribes themselves could no longer dispute, and to which, if prudently and steadily asserted, they would doubtless submit without apprehension or distrust. But out of this compact, now first voluntarily admitted, arose the necessity of a more simple system of control than that of the existing law. That protection and justice which the state of society among the Khonds demanded, could not be afforded; that salutary control, which was needed, could not be exercised, nor even that right of interference which had been acquired, be prudently enforced, while we continued to act upon the principles or to observe the forms of judicial proceedings made for people in so very different a stage of civilization. For these and similar reasons, his Lordship in Council appeared cordially to approve of Captain Macpherson's proposal that the entire hill population with the several agencies of Cuttack, Ganjam, and Vizagapatam should be withdrawn from the usual civil and criminal jurisdictionthat parties in the low country concerned in procuring Meriah victims should be excepted from the same-and that the special agent should be invested with the power to adjudicate in civil cases according to equity, and in criminal, with immediate jurisdiction to the extent pointed out in the second report. Conceiving it, moreover, to be of the utmost importance to act simultaneously and energetically against the traffic in human victims, it was adjudged to be desirable that the Khond agent, and the magistrates in the adjoining districts of Cuttack, should be invested with joint jurisdiction, which should also be extended to the Criminal Courts of the several districts. For the carrying out of the judicial decisions, the fifty paiks sought for by Captain Macpherson might at once be placed at his disposal. And in all these varied measures was distinctly seen and recognized the sure groundwork of a systematic course of proceeding, from which His Lordship in Council anticipated ultimate success. --- But, while his Lordship in Council thus emphatically approv ed of the extended and systematic plan of operations suggested by Captain Macpherson, it was felt that, from the enlarged sphere of action embraced by it, and from its requiring the combined co-operation of the Bengal and Madras Governments, together with the appointment of a special agent invested with peculiar and extraordinary powers, it would be necessary to submit it for the consideration and sanction of the Government of India. And his Lordship in Council resolved to lose no time in bringing it to the notice of that Supreme Authority. Nor was this resolution an idle or nugatory one. In due season it was transmitted, formally endorsed with the approbation of the Madras Government, to the Governor-General of India in Council, with the earnest recommendation that it should be favourably received,-in its essential spirit and substance adopted, and with the least practicable delay acted on. Indeed, from the very nature of the case and peculiar circumstances, it was abundantly obvious that, if ever acted on at all, the sooner the better;-while the feelings of many of those most deeply concerned were mantling warmly in its favour; and ere the latent seeds of aversion elsewhere should develope themselves in overt acts of defiant antagonism. But, unhappily, the season proved most inauspicious for the prompt or immediate consideration of such a subject as that of the abolition of the Meriah sacrifice among the barbarous, but politically harmless, Khonds. There were other native tribes, not commonly reputed to be barbarous, who were then striking the deadliest blow at the prestige of British invincibility and supremacy, that had yet been inflicted since the sceptre of the Great Mogul was first wrenched by British prowess from his grasp. Lord Elphinstone's Minute bore the date of the 22d September. The extract from the Minutes of consultation of the Madras Government, bearing the honoured signature of Mr. Walter Elliot, and forwarded to the Governor-General in Council, were dated the 10th December, 1842. By that time, Sir Alexander Burnes and other British officers had been cruelly murdered at Kabul; and one messenger of evil tidings after another was fast travelling to the metropolis -each conveying more disastrous intelligence than his predecessor. Such, therefore, was not the time, when any Governor-General-haunted as he must have been by terrible visions of wholesale massacre, and ominous forebodings as to the safety and stablility of the empire itself-could well be expected to turn aside his attention, and direct it, with concentrated energy, to the adjustment of plans for suppressing, in a remote, obscure and peaceful province, a social evil which involved no political urgency or danger. Here, however, for the present we must pause. The reception which the Madras application and reference met with at the hands of the Supreme Government, and the varied and deeply interesting statements, illustrative of the further proceedings which constitute the second series of Government measures for the abolition of human sacrifices among the Khonds, must now be reserved for another fitting opportunity-the present contribution being intended only as a first part or instalment. Enough, however, has, we trust, been adduced to indicate both the general and specific nature of the proceedings -enough to shew that they are marked by peculiarities which fairly entitled them to be regarded as altogether a distinct class from the first. In our statement of principles, plans and operations, the name of Captain Macpherson is that which most conspicuously appears. But this is no doing of ours. We simply imposed upon ourselves the task of faithfully delineating facts as we found them recorded in authoritative documents. In a former paper, the names of Russel, Bannerman, Miller, Hill, Campbell, Mills, Hicks, and Ouseley, were those which most prominently occurred. Captain Macpherson did not then make his appearance on the scene as an actor at all. In the course of our historic narrative, however, we duly and regularly arrived at the period when he did enter, as sole actor, on the scene. And if it be lawful, merely for the sake of illustration, to compare small things with great, it must be obvious that the principles, plans and operations of this period are as exclusively those of Captain Macpherson, as the principles, plans and operations of the Peninsular Campaigns were those of the Duke of Wellington. If, therefore, throughout These have been fully and impartially recorded in No. XII. of this work. this period, the principal figure in the foreground of our historic sketch, be that of Captain Macpherson, it is solely because, throughout that period, he was in reality the most conspicuous personage, as a propounder of principles, a deviser of plans, and an executor of important deeds. We are utterly unconscious of being swayed or actuated by any undue personal bias or favouritism towards Captain Macpherson. Quite the contrary. Of him we literally knew nothing till we perused, in manuscript copy, a considerable portion of his original report of 1841. That report at once arrested our attention. The theme was novel and to our mind of singular interestthe main object contemplated, one of deep concern to the cause of humanity-while the report presented itself as a remarkable monument of indefatigable industry, unconquerable perseverance, and no ordinary mental perspicuity, judgment, and good sense. It was the perusal of that report which led to our knowing or caring any thing about the author. So that it was truly his own labours which led us to feel an interest in the man, and not any previous knowledge of the man that influenced us to take an interest in his labours. On some other vital subjects, unconnected with Khond affairs, it might soon be found, that opinions were conscientiously entertained which might seem to be irreconcilably at variance. But we should be ashamed of the petty littleness of mind, or the one-sided partiality of partizanship, that would prevent us from perceiving or acknowledging the real merits of any individual's measures and achievements in one grand and important department of observation and experiment, merely because in some other department of speculation, doctrine, or practice, there might be found between us the widest difference of judgment. In the lengthened statements and extracts which we have furnished, our readers have been provided with ample means of forming their own judgment of Captain Macpherson's original plans and operations. And our earnest monition is, that, as a simple act of justice, they may not suffer their honestly formed views of the essential merits of these, to be obfuscated by the dust and smoke which unhappy controversy has succeeded in raising about his more recent proceedings. Whatever may be the character of the latter-and we have no reason to suppose them materially different-they cannot and ought not to be allowed retrospectively to affect the clearly defined and intelligible character of the former. How the controversy which of late has enveloped the public mind in a dense and lurid gloom of uncertainty and doubt, may have originated, it is not for us |