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To the Editor . -jSlB , The following letter lately appeared in the Times , addressed to the Editor :
" I have read with pain a paragraph in the Times , extracted from a Bengal journal , in which I am praised for having advocated the burning of widows among the Hindoos . In reply to this charge I beg of you to publish the following amendment , moved by me on the discussion of this subject at the India House , viz . "' That in the opinion of this court , though little has been done to reform the Hindoo superstition , or to convert the natives to Christianity , the government" of British India has at all times acted upon the philosophical
principles of unlimited toleration , and has thereby secured the good will of its subjects . That the inhuman custom of burning Hindoo widows cannot be prevented by prohibiting edicts ( i . e . by force ) without exciting the discontent of millions , and soon or late provoking religious wars , and ultimately increasing these frightful sacrifices ; and that the only means of promoting among the Hindoos the pure worship of God , and of preventing the burning of widows , and the drowning of sick persons in the Ganges , &c ., is to be found in virtuous education and free discussion , as practised under the administration of the Marquis of Hastings . ' Such are my sentiments , and I
proved the truth of them by references to the History of Mahmoud , Aurungzebe , Tippoo , and the Portuguese , who had established their Inquisition in the utmost horror at Goa . All had tried to put down opinion by force , and had eventually increased these sacrifices and perpetuated them to this day in British India , where the fires are said to be continually smoking with human victims ; while , on the contrary , the restoration of learning and the influence of the press in Europe had put down the Christian superstition , and had produced the Reformation , with other great events , highly advantageous to the interests of man . I am , &c .
" Leicester Stanhope . " The foregoing letter , on the subject of the burning of widows in India , appears to me to prove that the author of it ( as well as the whole of the acting authorities abroad ) is mistaken on the subject of religious toleration when he supposes that it is to extend to the toleration of outward acts of an
immoral and injurious tendency . In their anxiety to avoid the character of persecutors , they appear in danger of falling into another error not less destructive , viz . that of being abettors of what is not merely false in principle , but pernicious in practice . I believe the utmost of a wise and enlightened religious toleration only extends to granting complete and unlimited freedom of opinion on all subjects of human inquiry ; but when those opinions are superstitious and erroneous , and lead to bad actions , though the
government , whether civil or religious , has no ri ght to interfere with the opinions of the offender , in regard to any species of condemnation or punishment , it certainly can restrain the external evil actions . These fall , and justly bo , under the cognizance of the civil power , and for the welfare of society , the safety of others , and even for the sake of the offender himself , ought to be put an immediate stop to . To suppose otherwise is to presume that there is too law in the country , but that every person has a right to destroy
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BURNING OF HINDOO WIDOWS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 368, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/8/
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