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every point from east to west of this vast peninsula adapted to his purpose, at the risk of fortune, health, and even life itself; amidst Jews at Cochin, native Christians in Malabar, and inquisitors at Goa, we find him unceasingly active in prosecuting the great end to which he had consecrated himself. Nor, indeed, was his activity confined to one hemisphere. In the midst of his own successful career he looked round to his native country; and feeling that all efficient movements must be made here, that in English bosoms alone existed the zeal, and in English hands the power, to fulfil his great designs, he endeavoured, by the proposal of princely prizes to our seats of learning, to kindle a spirit corresponding with his own: and he has lived to see in part the fruit of his virtuous labours. Every day yields some fresh point to his wishes, some new trophy to his peaceful banners. There are few men whose lot we should be more disposed to envy. It has been his happy privilege to project and execute, to plan the battle and to win the triumph. A destiny not often theirs, the weapons of whose warfare have been the instruments of human suffering and a dubious glory.

It is a singular fact, that the account given by Dr. Buchanan of the temple of Juggernaut in Orissa, of the miseries encountered by the pilgrims in their march to the temple, of the horrors and indecencies by which the rites were defiled, far from establishing the facts, had served, with some individuals, to shake the authority of the relater. Many found it easier to dispute his accuracy than to admit his facts. Now one principal benefit of the work before us is, that it incontrovertibly establishes the accuracy of Dr. Buchanan's relation, and produces a body of facts more decisive, as we think, of the general controversy than any as yet laid before the public. It is our deliberate judgment that, had no other facts been adduced, enough are here stated to set the question at rest for ever. Added, as these are, to the mass before collected, they constitute a body of evidence too strong, we hope, for any candid mind to resist. It will be our endeavour to give an account of the particular controversy between Dr. Buchanan and others, and to shew the bearing of the whole work on the general question.

The history of the controversy is this. At a time when, as we have intimated, the extraordinary nature of the facts with regard to Juggernaut had in a measure brought Dr. Buchanan's veracity into question, Mr. Buller, a member of parliament, judged it expedient to lay on the table of the House a letter addressed to the East India Company, containing his own representation of the rites practised at the festival of Juggernaut. Mr. Buller had many claims to be heard. He had been high in authority in India,

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had himself been concerned in regulating the tax laid by the Indian government on all pilgrims approaching the temple, and in the year 1806 had visited the temple himself, to judge on the spot of the regulations most proper to be adopted. In the letter above mentioned, he defends the tax laid on the pilgrims approaching the temple, as tending to diminish their numbers. He admits the former "horrors of the scene" as evidenced by the numerous human bones on the road." He states, that the number of the "lower order of pilgrims" had been much diminished by the imposition of the tax. He contends that the number of immolations under the wheels of the car in which the idol is carried is small-that the indecencies so much insisted upon by Dr. Buchanan were wholly unobserved by him-that the songs sung by the priest are much like some of those admitted into our sacred writings.

To this letter Dr. Buchanan, with that facility which truth always creates, immediately replied; and we shall give some extracts from that reply.

It may be right to mention that Dr. Buchanan's accuracy had been doubted, in charging on the East India Company any concern in regulating the business of the temple of Juggernaut. Here then he has to thank Mr. Buller, who has both admitted and endeavoured to justify this superintendance.-It had been also affirmed that Dr. Buchanan had most profusely multiplied the pilgrims who visited the idol, and too strongly coloured the scenes of misery which presented themselves to the by-stander. But here also Mr. Buller himself authenticates the statement, by admitting that before the tax was imposed, the "scenes" had been "truly shocking."-In like manner Mr. Buller admits, that the immolations which Dr. Buchanan had recorded with so much hazard to his own character did sometimes take place. Thus far their accounts were not materially dissimilar. But Mr. Buller had directly impeached the authority of Dr. Buchanan in some particulars, which are noticed in the following extracts-extracts, which, we think, must satisfy all ingenuous examiners where the truth lies ; and which therefore we think it incumbent upon us to present to our readers.

"The writer marvels, in the next place, that I should have heard any thing distinctly, on account of the noise of the people clapping their hands, talking, shouting, and merry-making, in a crowd of about one hundred thousand,' particularly when, owing to the distance of the platform on which the priest stands, one could not by any endeavours get within ten yards of him.' Mr. Buller would have it to be inferred here, that I was not within ten yards' of the priest; whereas I state, in the printed account, that I went on in the procession close by the tower;' and in the letters circulated at

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Calcutta, it was stated, that I was so close to the tower, as to receive a garland of flowers from the hand of the priest.' The fact was, I could touch the car with my hand, during almost the whole time.

"Mr. Buller observes again, that the noise of the people was incessant, and without intermission, so that he could not hear any thing that was said. Doubtless, he could not hear what was said by the priest, if he stood at a distance. It is proper to explain here, that, on these occasions, Europeans in India usually look on at a distance, on account of the press of the people. At Juggernaut, in 1806, the English gentlemen usually sat in the Huchery, or public office, to see the procession pass. I sat there for a while on different days; but I could hear or see nothing distinctly, except at the moment of passing, and I joined the procession. Mr. Buller mentions that some ladies were with him: it is therefore probable that Mr. Buller sat all the while with the ladies in the Huchery, and that they did not follow the idol for two or three hours, to see what was transacting among the people, at their celebration of the famed Rutt Jutra. "Mr. Buller thinks that the noise of the people about the car is incessant, without intermission; but if he had joined the car, he would have found that this is not the case. When the priest pronounces his stanzas, which he does generally while the car stands still, there is a solemn silence among the people who are near it, and they listen with keen attention: at the conclusion they respond with a sensual yell of approbation, and then urge the car along. Many such yells I am sure Mr. Buller must have heard, although he might not have known what it was that produced them. To suppose that the priest should, on any public occasion, address the people and not be listened to, is hardly consistent. Mr. Buller's acknowledged ignorance of this notorious circumstance, viz. that there is a frequent intermission of the noise of the people about the car, and a gaping attention to devour the words of the priest, entirely convinces me that he must be wholly ignorant of many important particulars of the native scenes at Juggernaut."

But passing from this particular controversy, we would now call the attention of our readers to the bearing of this work, and some other parliamentary documents to which this has guided our enquiries upon the general question of evangelizing India. Let us enquire what answer is supplied from these sources to some current objections.

In the first place, the sanguinary character of the Indian superstition, proved in part by the atrocities of Juggernaut, had been stoutly denied. Now, in this volume we have all the worst facts with regard to Juggernaut, admitted to a great extent by Mr. Buller himself. We have them also more minutely detailed by Dr. Buchannan. And finally, we are directed to a most decisive extract from the Periodical Account of the Baptist Missions, in which the state of things is described in 1811, that is, after some years trial of the means applied by Mr. Buller himself

for the preservation of good order. And from this statement it appears, that in the year 1811 one hundred and fifty persons were killed by the crowd in approaching the temple-that numbers destroyed themselves by falling under the wheel of the idol's car, laying" themselves on their backs for the purpose of being crushed to death by it." Another missionary, the distinguished oriental scholar Dr. Carey, has calculated the expenditure of life in this single pilgrimage to Juggernaut at 100,000 persons.

Again, a flat denial had been opposed to the alleged indecencies of this feast, and to the general charges of the same kind brought against the religion of India. Now there are obvious reasons why neither Dr. Buchanan nor ourselves could display very fully the evidence upon this point. But he says enough to convince us that nothing but the nature of the subject has hitherto protected the character of Hinduism. Its obscenities have been kept back, not because they were difficult of detection, but because they were too monstrous to be dragged to the light.

So far had the pictures of the Hindus presented to us in early life, especially those partial portraits executed by the hands of certain great masters, on, or we may say for, the trial of Mr. Hastings, deluded us-that we ourselves were among those who did not at once give all the credit due to the evidence by which any facts injurious to their character were sought to be established. And the features of gross obscenity were, we confess, among the last to enter into the representation of a Hindu as it had formed itself on our minds. But Dr. Buchanan, with many concurring witnesses, has incontrovertibly established the charge; has convinced us that Hinduism is inferior to no form of heathenisin in its brutalizing influence upon the mind. "Let us only (says Dr. Buchanan) suppose that the youth of Great Britain of both sexes were accustomed to worship at the altar in company with a band of impure females, invested with a sacred character, and there to witness the songs and dances of those females in the same place, and what would be the character of the people of this country in a few years?" "The two characteristics of the religion of Brahma are impurity and blood. The emblems of the former vice are engraved in durable sculpture every where upon the walls. Why are they thus engraved? Because they constitute the very essence of the Brahminical superstition. No labour of language, no qualification of expression, can ever do away this notorious fact." In an unsuspected work of Mr. Ward, on the religion of the Hindus (p. 200), we find evidence of the same complexion. "I will give one instance only as a specimen. It is related by an unexceptionable witness. I suppose 2000 men, women, and

children might be assembled. I observed, that one of the men, standing before the idol in a boat, dancing and making indecent gestures, was stark naked. As the boat passed along he was gazed at by the mob; nor could I perceive that this abominable action produced any other sensation than that of laughter. Before other images, young men dressed in women's clothes were dancing with other men, making indecent gestures. I have seen the same abominations exhibited before our own door.'" Nor need we confine ourselves to individual testimonies. The East India directors, who have very injuriously been identified with their own Indian government in every transaction connected with Christianity, have spoken out upon this point. The table of parliament, which proclaims many a tale whispered only to the reeds on the Ganges or the Thames, has revealed to us a curious fact on this very point. It appears that the directors had honesty and piety enough to remonstrate with their government in India on their interference with the temple at Juggernaut, deeming such interference unseemly in a Christian nation-and grounding their remonstrance chiefly on the nature of the "emblems" exhibited at this feast, and especially on the car of the idol. This remonstrance unhappily was struck out by the Board of Control-a measure, of which that administration who so nobly supported the cause of religion in the face of parliament must now see the impolicy, and we should add, the guilt. But all other facts and statements are superseded by this now acknowledged fact, that the millions of India universally adore an image, the description of which we must be content to omit, to avoid polluting our pages. Who, after this, can see with tranquillity the reign of such a religion without wishing to render its votaries apostates? Who will not confess that it is behind no modification of heathenism in its brutalizing and sensualizing tendencies? Who will not stand confounded at the moral taste of those whom the Hindus remind of golden ages and Arcadian purity? And are we still to hear of the comparative merits of the Bible and the Shasters?

A third point, laboured by the enemies of missions with much assiduity, is to prove that all the statements respecting the burning of widows have been much exaggerated. Now, independently of the statements of Dr. Buchanan, this volume gives two extracts from the hitherto unquestioned work of Mr. Ward, which display transactions of so much deeper dye than any which we had ever pictured to ourselves, that we cannot withhold them from our readers.

"About the year 1796 (says Mr. Ward) the following most shocking and atrocious murder, under the name of suhumurunu,

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