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    Trinitarians have also an iheamatioii of the Supreme Being ; but in this respect they are more than a match for the Island of Saints : they have increased the number , — -I do not pretend to say that the absurdity could be increased , —and instead of one have

    insisted on ten incarnations ! Yet tFel ^ octTtos ^ mi ^^^^ harmless if confined to the Brahmins , and unaccompanied by along train of cruel superstitions ; but what are we to think of a religion which robs the child of a mother ' s care , and consigns the living wife to the burning pile beside the corpse of her husband ? and what are we to think of the men who

    inveighed against Lord William Bentinck for abolishing this infernal custom ?—for breaking down , forsooth , the ancient constitutions of the country , and introducing such a dangerous innovation ! What a religion must that be which changes the very nature of . the gentle and timid Hindoowhich can make a mother throw her

    child to the sharks of the Ganges , or the father dash it and himself before the wheels of the idol of Juggernaut 1 •—which imposes an endless round of unmeaning ceremonies , of the most horrible and revolting penances , of

    practices whose very repetition would fatigue arid disgust my hearers !—It is a refreshment to the spirit to turn from these details to the simple yet sublime precepts of love to God and love to man . When I see the

    contrast , I forget I am a Unitarian , arid I care little under what form Christianity may be cultivated in the East , only let there be Christianity . 4 regret , sir , for the sake of Britain ,

    that I cannot speak of the degradation of India , without arraigning the East India Company . The -subjects are inseparable ; they cannot be torn asunder , We cannot govern others without bearing a heavy responsibility ourselves ; there cannot be a slave without

    a tyrant , or a contented servant with an unjust master . And here I shall not speak on the authority of an individual , however well-informed and candid he may be , and I believe him to be both—I

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    allude to Mr . Buckinghani ; but he has been wronged , and in his case there is th i s peculiar hard ship , tbat , withthe common run of mankind , the very injustice he has suffered will cast some shade over the impartiality of his statements . My accusation rests On the reports of

    secretaries , judges , and governors of hrdia : = ^ on ^ acts-elicited ~ by ~ parliani « n * tary investigation . On this ground I stand , and I arraign the Company of having engaged in the most sanguinary wars for the most unjustifiable purposes ; of having notronly neglected , but much abused the awful trust

    committed to them—dominion over mil- * lions- " of their fellow-creatures . I do not know a more striking contrast than that with which Mill commences his " History of British India : — ^ Two hundred years ago , ' . ' : says he ( I quote from memory and not verbatim ) , " a few English merchants humbly

    solicited permission from the Indian princes to traffic on their coastsj and now the entire of that vast region from the Indus to the Burrampooter , from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya mountains , is in the hands or under the protection of the Company . " Preserve me and mine from such protection ! This is the company whose

    agents I accuse of the most profligate expenditure , of the most grinding ex * tortion ; of a system , of force combined with fraud , which might have made the Mogul Mahometans , who formerly conquered that unhappy region , blush for their ignorancfc in the art of misgoverning—I doubt , indeed , if they ever attempted it on such a scale . I find at one time a third of that fair

    and fallen land metamprphosed into jungle and morass ; at another period a third of its inhabitants perishing with famine , that is , thousands of square miles laid waste , and millions of people starving , under the fostering care of this Christian company . t-BuTlet us turn to the moral condition of the Hindoo . Has it improved ? Is he less licentious because more

    industrious ? Has he acquired sufficient courage not to Tbe a liar ? Has Be discovered honesty to be the better

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    t fNlTARTAtf CHRONICLE * SQ

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1832, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1717/page/9/