the most respectable Hindoo and Mussulmans have subscribed, be procured for the use of such Native Schools.

3rd. That the following Gentlemen form a Committee.

J. A'HMUTY, ESQ. PRESIDent.

W. PATON, Esq.

R. MITFORD, Esq.

J. MASTER, Esq.

W. SMITH, Esq.

G. LAMB, Esq.

AND

MR. O. LEONARD, MEMBERS.

4th. That R. Mitford, Esq. be Treasurer, Geo. Lamb, Esq. Secretary, and Mr. O. Leonard, Assistant Secretary.

5th. That the Committee meet quarterly to examine into the state of the Christian and Native Schools, having regular reports laid before them by the Secretary.

6th. That the sums subscribed at Dacca and its neighbourhood be divided between the two Institutions at the discretion of the Committee, so that they may derive reciprocal benefit in case of any decrease in the subscriptions; but that any sum subscribed to either specifically, shall be applied to such exclusive purpose.

7th. That an account of the Receipts and Disbursements be printed annually and sent to every Subscriber and Benefactor, and copies thereof inserted in the General Report of the Parent Institution.

8th. That Circular Letters with the Resolutions of the Committee when printed, be transmitted to the several Gentlemen resident in the vicinity of this City, and in the neighbouring Zillahs, and to the principal Greek, Armenian, and Native Inhabitants, soliciting their aid to forward the benevolent designs of the Society on the principles above laid down.

(Signed)

Dacca, 11th Nov. 1818.

J. A'HMUTY.
W. PATON.

R. MITFORD.

J. MASTER.
W.SMITH.
G. LAMB.

V. On the Burning of Widows.

It is a melancholy reflection that the religion which influences the population of these vast regions is totally unfavourable to the exercise of any principle either of humanity or virtue. Ma. ny of its precepts are so afflictive and unnatural, that they seem to have sunk by common consent into complete disuse; and if every point of the Hindoo ritual were literally enforced, not only would it be impossible to carry forward the ordinary business of life, but all those social relations, to which we are indebted for so much of our happiness, would be completely obli terated, and the whole frame of society dissolved. There are still, however, many usages subversive equally of benevolence and morality, which have been perpetuated for ages. Among these is the burning of widows, a practice, the enormity of which would strike even the Hindoos themselves, did not a blind attachment to the vices of their forefathers, overcome every natural feeling. In all the annals of human depravity, it will be difficult to discover a custom so horrible in its nature, or so destructive in its consequences both on individual and public happiness. It forms one of the blackest pages in the history of Hindooism, and were this feature of its character alone to remain on record, it would be of itself sufficient to hand it down to the execration of the latest ages. That a practice which would reflect a stigma on the most barbarous tribes, should have been sanctioned by men of thought and penetration, and perpetuated among a people whose mildness of disposition is proverbial, shews to what a state of degradation the mind may be reduced under the influence of an unnatural superstition. This is not the case of a patriot relinquishing life to establish the freedom of his country,-it is not a martyr braving the flames to maintain the rights of conscience—it is not a noble mind sacrificing even life itself on some occasion of exalted virtue to secure to posterity the beneft of its high example. On these occasions we feel a melancholy pleasure in applauding a voluntary resignation of life. But it is the helpless and discon

solate widow torn from her family at the very climax of her grief, and hurried to the flames amidst the shouts of an unfeeling multitude. She must stifle every feeling of compassion for the offspring of her womb, she must renounce them at a period when they stand most in need of her care; and, when weighed down with sorrow, she must take a last look on all mortal things, and enter the flames. Every feeling of humanity is here sacrificed, without the counterbalance of the least degree of advantage either to individuals or to society. Had this sacrifice been demanded of the stronger part of the community, even then it would have been a demand of singular enormity; but in a country like Hindoost'han to demand this sacrifice of the weaker sex, to urge the unprotected female, while her grief for the loss which her children have recently sustained is yet unsupportable, to deprive them of their only remaining consolation, and cast them on the wide world, without father or mother, is surely a case of unparalelled barbarity, and tends almost beyond any thing else to develope the extent of that depravity to which Hindooism owes its origin.

If we turn from the wretched victim to the unhappy offspring whom she abandons, what do we behold, but a sight of still deeper woe! Scarcely recovered from the blow inflicted on them by the death of their father, they are hurried from their once peaceful home to the funeral pile to witness the death of their mother! In other countries the loss of paternal protection, is in some measure compensated by the increased exertion of maternal kindness and solicitude. But under the influence of this system, their children are deprived of both parents in one day. A state of the deepest misery succeeds to a state of the highest happiness with such rapidity as a'most to deprive them of the exercise of their mental faculties. The family compact is destroyed with the suddenness of an earthquake. The corpse of the father is scarcely cold before their only living parent is bound to it, and consumed in their presence. But there are circumstances of still greater enormity attached to this system. The funeral pile must

Had this deed of darkness been

be lighted by the eldest son! consigned to some unconcerned spectator, to the brahmun who officiates on these occasions with such lively pleasure, or even to some distant and unaffected relative, this might have been some relief to the feelings. But it must be performed by the eldest son; the extinction of the hopes of his family is consigned to him. He accompanies his mother from his home to the banks of the Ganges, he stands by in all the agony of grief during the performance of those tremendous rites by which she devotes herself to destruction, nor does he dare to lift an arm for her relief: he beholds his mother, endeared to him by the recollection of a thouT sand acts of kindness, thrown on the funeral pile like a beast of sacrifice and inhumanly bound to the dead body of her husband with all those indications of brutal satisfaction which shed a tenfold horror on the scene; and surrounded by his weeping brothers and sisters, he lights up the pile which consumes the living parent with the dead, and extinguishes all their hopes of future tenderness and protection. Every circumstance which can aggravate this scene of woe is here combined; nor is it possible to conceive of any thing which could add a deeper tinge of barbarity that has been omitted.

If we would form an adequate idea however of the effects of this system on social happiness, we must not overlook the state of prospective misery which each family suffers long before the painful moment of separation arrives. The family in which it is known that the mother must through the tyranny of custom devote herself to the flames, is subjected for years to the most painful and afflictive anxiety. The happiness which they enjoy may be suddenly annihilated; a single day may reduce them from a high state of domestic felicity to the situation of the most wretched orphans. They feel that the death of the father will be only a sig nal for the more horrid death of their endeared mother. The an

guish which such a state of suspense and anxiety must involve, may be more easily conceived than described. The longer they are indulged with the endearments of maternal affection, the

longer is this state of misery prolonged, and the keener does that stroke become of which they are held in dreadful expectation: thus, that which under a milder institution is a source of joy, is here turned into an aggravation of expected wretchedness. The continuance of their social happiness is removed even from the common chance of mortality, and placed at the disposal of a merciless superstition; even the cup of bliss is mixed with the bitterest gall, and that season of life when, from the absence of care, the mind is disposed to the utmost gaiety and cheerfulness, is in many instances consumed in almost insupportable anxiety and distress.

The influence of this system is scarcely less destructive to the general happiness of society. It aggravates every natural calamity, and gives additional horror to every disease. In other countries the prevalence of an epidemic only serves to increase the energies of benevolence. In this country however, there are no attempts made either to stem the current of disease, or to console the afflicted and bereaved. Those of the family whom the disease has spared, are only reserved for accumulated misery-the survivors, instead of receiving assistance, are cruelly deprived of that parent who could most effectually have afforded it. Every epidemic therefore assumes an aspect of ten fold horror. This dreadful practice is not suspended during a period of general distress; in vain do the wretched offspring demand the life of their mother at a time, when from the universal prevalence of disease, hers is the only hand that can minister relief to them; this superstition When therefore the country is afflicted, as during the past year, with a destructive epidemic, the numerous victims to disease, the augmented number of female immolations, the number of relatives who tremble for their sisters or their daughters, added to the number of children who stand exposed by the ravages of superstition and death to the loss of all parental aid or consolation, form a consummation of misery, to which no other country on earth presents a parallel.

is inexorable as death itself.

Viewing as we do, therefore, this horrid system as destructive