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    excite an universal detestation . This supineness arises , no doubt , from ignorance of the causes whence these superstitions arose , and by which they still subsist ; for it is not credible that , if it were clearly understood that their overthrow might be speedily and easily effected , and that their downfall would involve no evil consequences whatever , that overthrow would not be immediately urged and completed . Every man is therefore bound to inform

    himself of the facts , that he may be satisfied on these points ; and when satisfied , he is called on by every feeling of common humanity to make his voice heard on behalf of the degraded members of his race . If it was ever a duty to inquire into the wrongs of African slaves—if it was ever a privilege to advocate their cause—if the exertions of their deliverers were ever

    worthy of praise , it is equally a duty and a privilege to befriend the unhappy captives of a barbarous superstition , it is equally honourable to release them from a bondage more wretched than any other to which human beings have been subjected . It is sometimes objected that the injuries which were removed by the African slave-trade had been inflicted by ourselves , but that in the case before us the miseries at which we shudder arise from causes

    wholly independent of us . But if it is proved that those miseries are not only prolonged by our indifference , but aggravated by our mismanagement , the objection falls to the ground . It is the object of the tracts before us to prove that this is the case . The first subject to which our attention is called is the practice of the

    Suttee , or the burning of Hindoo widows . It is commonly believed that this rite is incorporated with the religion of the Hindoos , and on this belief are founded most of the objections to interference on the part of the government . It is , however , erroneous , as is proved by the voluntary or extorted testimony of the enlightened natives and learned foreigners who have inquired into the fact .

    A tract , the object of which is to dissuade his countrymen from the practice of this rite , was published by Ramraohun Roy , in L 818 . The mention of his name is a sufficient introduction to our readers , and the best recom - mendation of his arguments on a subject of which he of all men is best qualified to treat . The tract is in the form of a dialogue between an advocate and an adversary of the system ; and the arguments issue in a proof that while the act of self-sacrifice is no where commanded in the Shasters , it is

    opposed to the precepts of the most eminent Hindoo legislators . This pamphlet excited much attention , and was the occasion of a work on the other side of the question , drawn up by some of the pundits in Calcutta . This work was sent forth without a name or a title-page , but was obviously prepared by persons of no small talent and information . It is valuable from its

    containing every thing which can be found in the Hindoo Shasters in favour of the rite ; and if the authorities adduced be found to afford no positive injunction , it is clear that the practice is as illegal as it is inhuman . They do not afford one positive injunction , and the very few recommendations of the sacrifice are accompanied with an intimation that though it is good for a widow to ascend with her husband to heaven , it is better for her to live a life

    of self-discipline : while Menu , the great Hindoo legislator , by directing the widow ^ after the death of her husband , to pass her whole life as an ascetic , clearly discountenances the practice . Ample evidence of these facts is to be found in the work before us , the substance of the proof being that the rite is no where commanded by any expositions of the Hindoo system ; that it is not recommended b y one-fifth of the Hindoo writers on ethics or jurisprudence , nor practically regarded by one in a thousand of those who profess

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    India * s Cries to British Humanity . 831

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 831, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/15/