tain number of those concerned, who should appear to them to have been the most deeply engaged as ringleaders, and the least entitled to a mitigation of sentence on the score of character. When this was done, and a sentence of expulsion passed in consequence on five students, a subsequent vote of the court restored them all to the service, and they were sent out to India without even completing the usual period of residence at the college!!! A spirit of insubordination, Mr. M. remarks, is the natural growth of such circumstances as these, and it is not surprising, that even the ample powers which have since been legally vested in the principal and professors, should as yet have been insufficient for the com plete and radical correction of the evil: especially as he asserts, that the authorities of the college have still to contend against a spirit of hostility from without, which practically defeats the exercise of those powers, by regularly putting the college, as it were, on its defence for a long period after any severe sentence has been passed, and by undermining those feelings of respect among the governed, which are the best security for obedience and subordination.-Pp. 73, 74, 75. After some further observations on the absolute necessity of the power of expulsion, both for the preservation of discipline and for the protection of the best interests of the service, Mr. M. concludes this part of the subject with the following remarks : The collegiate authorities now legally possess the power both of expelling, and of refusing certificates; but, unfortunately, from the disposition shewn by the founders and patrons of the college, and that part of the public connected with India, in every case where the loss of an appointment is in question, a full support in the exercise of this power cannot be depended upon; although there can be no doubt that every act of collegiate punishment that is unopposed and unquestioned tends to render such acts in future less necessary; and every act that is so opposed and questioned tends to increase the probability of the recurrence of that conduct which had called it forth. If this difficulty could be removed, the best hopes might be entertained of the result. And if the college were so supported, as to enable it gradually to subdue the spirit of insubordination, by removing refractory and vicious characters without clamour or cavil, and to exercise its discretionary powers in refusing certificates, according to the letter and spirit of its statutes, and with a view to the real interests of the service and the good of India, there is the strongest reason to presume, from the testimonies of what the college has already done, and the further good effects which might be confidently expected from the results just adverted to, that it would answer, in no common degree, the important purpose for which it was intended. In section seven Mr. M. ad verts more particularly to the charges which have been recently circulated against the institution. In answer to those charges he again appeals to the ample testimonies from India, referred to above; and asserts that Mr. Hume, instead of consulting competent and disinterested judges, Seems to have sought for the character of the college from fathers irritated at the merited punishment of their sons, and from some Hertfordshire country gentlemen, tremblingly alive about their game, -two of the most suspicious quarters from which information could possibly be obtained. alluded to by Mr. Hume, as having With regard to the individual become an outcast of society from the contagion of the East India College, Mr. M. challenges him to produce the name of the person in question. Let his previous character be traced; and let it be seen, by an appeal to facts, whether he was not much more likely to corrupt others than to be corrupted himself. His example indeed could hardly have failed to produce a most pernicious effect, if the good sense and moral feelings of the great majority of the students had not induced them, from the very first term of his residence, to shun his society. The appointment of the Principal to be a Justice of the Peace is a subject which appears to have been strangely misconceived. "Dr. Batten," observes Mr. M., "as a clergyman having a considerable benefice in Lincolnshire, is as legally qualified to become a justice as any magistrate on the bench." The appointment was expressly recommended by Lord Buckinghamshire, then President of the India Board. It has never yet been used, and probably never will, in maintenance of discipline: and "with regard to the scandalous and libellous insinuation" in a paragraph of the Times newspaper, (shamefully and falsely ascribing the death of one of the students to his commitment for a criminal breach of the peace within the walls of the College), Mr. M. says, "Let every inquiry be made on the subject, and the more minute and accurate it is, the more agreeable will it be to the College." P. 87, 88, 89. It is quite needless to dwell on Mr. M.'s reply to the complaints of Mr. Randle Jackson, that a college education was too aspiring for persons destined for "weighing tea, counting bales, and measuring muslins." By the India Register it appears that of 442 persons in the civil service, only seventy-two have any connection with trade; and even these, Lord Wellesley says, should have of the many qualifications of statesmen. "Such being the facts, is it not obvious that the education of the civil servants should be fitted for the important stations filled by the great body of them, and that those who are comparatively unsuccessful in improvement should supply departments in which less abilities are required ?" P. 92. For the literary proficiency of the students, Mr. Malthus appeals to facts and documents, for the purpose of establishing that in this respect the College answers its purpose, not with Utopian perfection, but at least in an equal degree with any other known seminary, either scholastic or collegiate. In reply to Mr. Jackson's doc trine, "that those who cannot understand should be made to feel," Mr. M. shews, beyond all controversy, that it is idle to rely on flog ging alone for the support of discipline, or the enforcement of industry, since that, or any other subordinate punishment, must ultimately owe its efficacy to the power of expulsion. He adds, Those who go out to India must and will be men the moment they reach the country, at whatever age that may be ; and there they will be immediately exposed to temptations of no common magnitude and danger. To prepare them for this ordeal, Mr. Jackson and the silly writers in the Times recommend their being whipped till the last hour of their getting into their ships. I own it appears to me that the object is more likely to be attained by a gradual initiation into a greater degree of liberty, and a greater habit of depending upon themselves, than is usual at schools, carried on for two or three years previously, in some safer place than Calcutta. The objections to caps and gowns seem scarcely to deserve notice. They form a badge extremely useful for the purpose of discipline; and as for the supposed jealousy of the universities on this subject, every rational man belonging to them must heartily laugh at the laudable zeal of the London citizens to inspire them with a becoming dread of such horrible usurpation," P. 99. We shall conclude with an extract which exhibits concisely Mr. M.'s view of the difficulties with which the College has to contend; Among these are the multiplicity of its governors, consisting not only of the Court of Directors, but of the Court of Proprie tors; the variety of opinions among them, some being for a college in England, some for a college in Calcutta, some for a school, and some for nothing at all ;the constant discussion arising from this variety of opinion, which keeps up a constant expectation of change;-the interest of individuals to send out their sons as early, and with as little expense of education, as possible, an interest too strong for public spirit ;-the very minute and circumstantial details, in all the proceedings of the college which are required, to be seen by all the ladies and gentlemen who are proprietors of India stock ;-the impossibility of sending a student away without creating a clamour from one end and lengthened by the power thus furof London to the other, greatly aggravated nished, of debating every step of the pro ceedings-the chances that the details above adverted to will enable some ingenious lawyer to find a flaw in the proceedings, with a view to their reversal ;the never-ending applications made to the college, when a student is sent away, for re-admission, assuming every conceivable form of flattery and menace ;-the opinion necessarily formed, and kept up in this way among the students, that sentences, though passed, will not be final;-and, above all, the knowledge they must have, from the avowed wish of many of the proprietors of East India stock to destroy the college, that a rebellion would be agreeable to them. How is it possible to answer for the conduct of young men, under such powerful excitements from without? For my own part, I am only astonished that the college has been able to get on at all, under these overwhelming obstacles; and that it has got on, and done great good too, (which I boldly assert it has), is no common proof of its internal vigour, and its capacity to answer its object. The above passage we consider as extremely important, because if the statement be accurate, it establishes this point, at least, that, though there may have been faults in the internal administration of the college; yet there have been external causes at work, abundantly sufficient to account for a still more extensive failure than has actually taken place in the order and discipline of the institution: and if these causes should remain in undiminished force, it appears that they must be equally injurious either to a college or a school. Whatever may be the fate of the question which has been raised on this subject, and which it seems is not yet finally disposed of, every friend to the prosperity and honour of the Company, must heartily deprecate the tone of intemperate and sweeping accusation which in various quarters has been levelled against the institution. Such bitter and contemptuous language cannot but be productive of mischief and injustice. If the college fails to answer the purpose of its foundation, let it be reformed or destroyed. But the question is surely one of no ordinary moment; and all the discussions which relate Asiatic Journ.-No. 14. to it ought to be conducted with that calm, dispassionate, and impartial spirit which becomes all inquiries of magnitude and difficulty. It is with a view to promote that spirit that we have laid before the public, almost without comment, so full an abstract of Mr. Malthus's perspicuous and candid performance. Those, however, who are desirous of being in possession of the full strength of that side of the question, ought certainly to content themselves with nothing short of an attentive perusal of the work itself. A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos. By the Rev. W. Ward. (Concluded from page 40.) IN a very learned dissertation on the "Religious Ceremonies of the Hindoos," by Mr. Colebrooke, in the fifth volume of Asiatic Researches, the reader will find a considerable portion of the statements in these volumes confirmed by extracts immediately taken from the puranas. That dissertation exhibits a wonderful display of superstition in every varied form which the blindest bigotry can assume. The prayers which accompany those ceremonious rites are nearly all addressed to elementary deities; particularly to the SCLAR FIRE, the generator of all things, and to WATER, the genial nourisher and sustainer of all things. In it will be found a very honourable attestation to the truth of all that has been advanced by Mr. Ward in those preliminary strictures in the first volume, from which we have already given such ample extracts, Both productions incontestably prove that the theology of India, at least, as generally understood and practised, is a gross and physical theology! Some refined spirits may, indeed, penetrate behind the veil, and behold and adore the SUPREME DEITY who formed those elements; but the gross of the peo S VOL. III. ple are, to all intents and purposes, idolaters, ever prompt to venerate the objects of sense, and servilely obedient to the dictates of a tyrannical priesthood. Well may the virtuous indignation of our Serampore missionary be roused by the perpetration, almost before his eyes at Jagannath, of the nefarious practices that accompany those sanguinary sacrifices of both bestial and human victims; at the tortures inflicted without remorse; the anguish endured without a groan; at the legislator who could command them, and the infernal deity who could alone be pacified by them. It is not, however, merely the unequalled cruelty of these bloody sacrifices that inflames his resentment, the utter want of decency displayed in their festivals; the lascivious dance, and the obscene song, which at the DURGA festival, where he was a visitor, and of which the reader has seen his interesting account-these evince in the degenerate Hindu, such a deep taint of sensual guilt, as far surpasses the enormities that prevailed in the ancient Bacchic festivals. On this subject there is one passage in Mr. Ward's work, which was accidentally neglected to be inserted in our preceding article ; but which is of too important a nature to be wholly omitted, and, therefore, before we finally close the first volume, shall be here presented to the reader, as a pointed comment upon the atrocities there exhibited to his astonished view. The concluding sentiment of this extract is equally judicious and pious. In short, the characters of the gods, and the licentiousness which prevails at their festivals, and abounds in their popular works, with the enervating nature of the climate, have made the Hindoos the most effeminate and corrupt people on earth. I have, in the course of this work, exhibited so many proofs of this fact, that I will not again disgust the reader by going into the subject. Suffice it to say, that fidelity to marriage rows is almost unknown among the Hindoos; the intercourse of the sexes approaches very near to that of the irrational animals. The husband almost invariably lives in criminal intercourse during the pupilage of his infant wife; and she, if she becomes a widow, cannot marry, and in consequence, being destitute of a protector and of every moral principle, becomes a willing prey to the lascivious. Add to all this, the almost incredible number of human victims which annually fall in this Aceldama. I have ventured on an estimate of the number of Hindoos who annually perish, the victims of the brahminical religion; (vol. ii. p. 127,) and have supposed, that they cannot amount to less than 10,500! Every additional information I obtain, and the opinions of the best informed persons with whom I am acquainted, confirin me in the opinion, that this estimate is too low, that the havock is far greater, however difficult it may be to bring the mind to contemplate a scene of horror which outdoes all that has ever been perpetrated in the name of religion by all the savage nations put together. These cruelties, together with the contempt which the Hindoos feel for the body as a mere temporary shell, cast off at pleasure, and the disorganizing effects of the cast, render them exceedingly unfeeling and cruel: of which their want of every national provision for the destitute; their leaving multitudes to perish before their own doors, unpitied and even unnoticed; the inhuman mauner in which they burn the bodies of their deceased relations, and their savage triumph when spectators of a widow burning in the flames of the funeral pile, are awful examples. 2 But to know the Hindoo idolatry AS IT Is, a person must wade through the filth of the thirty-six pooranus and other popular books- he must read and hear the must follow the brahimun through his modern popular poems and songs-he midnight orgies, before the image of Kalee, and other goddesses; or he must accompany him to the nightly revels, the jatras, and listen to the filthy dialogues and the daughters of the milkmen; or which are rehearsed respecting Krishnu he must watch him, at midnight, choking, with the mud and waters of the Ganges, a wealthy rich relation, while in the delirium of a fever; or, at the same hour, while murdering an unfaithful wife, or a supposed domestic enemy; burning the body before it is cold, and washing the blood from his hands in the sacred stream of the Ganges; or he must look at the bramhun, hurry.ng the trembling half-dead widow round the funeral pile, and throwing her, like a log of wood, by the side of the dead body of her husband, tying her, and then holding her down with bamboo levers till the fire has deprived her of the power of rising and running away.-After he has followed the bramhun through all these horrors, he will only have approached the threshold of this temple of Moloch, and he will begin to be convinced, that to know the Hindoo idolatry, AS IT IS, a man must become a Hindoo-rather, he must be come a bramhun; for a poor shoodru, by the very circumstances of his degradation, is restrained from many abominations which bramhuns alone are privileged to commit. And when he has done this, let him meditate on this system in its ef fects on the mind of the afflicted or dying Hindoo, as described in vol. ii. pp. 163, 164, and 176; on reading which description he will perceive, that in distress the Hindoo utters the loudest murmurs a gainst the gods, and dies in the greatest perplexity and agitation of mind. The state of things serves to explain the mysterious dispensations of Provideuce, in permitting the Hindoos to remain so long in darkness, and in causing them to suffer so much formerly under their Mahometan oppressors. The murder of so many myriads of victims has armed heaven against them. Let us hope that now, in the midst of judgment, a gracious Providence has remembered mercy, and placed them under the fostering care of the British government, that they may enjoy a happiness to which they have been hitherto strangers. We now proceed to the examination of the second volume of this singular work, which opens with a description of the TEMPLES of the Hindus, varying in form and decoration, but most of them wonderful structures for such an apparently feeble race to have erected. Some of these are square buildings, which are in general devoted to the obscene worship of the LINGAM. Others, again, as those sacred to Jagannath, rise in a gradual slope like a sugar loaf. Those to Vishnu have generally a lofty dome with pinnacles or turrets; some more and some less. The number of them in every city is very great, and much of the wealth of the ancient Hindu monarchs and great rajahs has been expended in the erection of them. All have a train of officiating brahmans attached to them with proportionate salaries: the revenues of some are very ample: those of Jagannath are estimated by our author at 100,000 rupees. After the descriptions of the TEMPLES, and their endowments, the IMAGES with which they are respectively decorated are considered at some length, as well as the different materials of which they are composed, as gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, wood, &c, &c. Those of the Lingam are most numerous, are generally of stone, and is mentioned as set up at Benares some are of a very large size. One of such vast dimensions that six men can hardly grasp it. The Hindu tribe of potters are the principal god makers, and they, like the ancient fabricators of the shrines of the great Diana, find it' to be a very profitable employ ment. The PRIESTS, and the dif ferent modes of WORSHIP are next discussed. Then follows an account of the periods of worship, and the enumeration of the FESTIVALS, which are almost innumerable. They fall mostly on the days of the new moon, or when she is at the full; and at the times of the increase and decrease of her changeful orb. Mr. Ward observes it as being rather a singular circumstance, that both in the European and Hindu mythology, the two first days of the week should be denominated after the same deities; Surya-vara, or Sunday, and Soma-vara, or Monday. Those days also are venerated when Surya, the sun, that primary object of all their devotions enters into a new sign; in short, astronomy enters largely into all their rites and ceremonies, and it is thus demonstrated, that if their books be allowed in any degree the antiquity to which they lay claim, the Brahmans must in the remotest periods have been very attentive observers, at least, of the motions of the heavenly luminaries. It would be a task equally tedious and disgusting to enter into all the minutiae of the superstitious and endless ceremonies in which the Hindu is absorbed from the rising to the setting sun: the varieties of prayer offered up to the deities respectively ador |