The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-03-26 00:00:00

I

NUMBER 731

R,
TER.IRY aDVERTISER•
. .
- .
SATUtMAY, MARcH 20, 1803. rPEICE SIXPENCE',

1

' This Day is published, and may he bad Gro6t of all the
Booksellers in the Unttsd Kingdom, a PROsPECTIJS of a
new Work, (the grit Volume of which will Lc ?obi:she~
early in 18031 to be entitled
PHE ANNUAL REVIEW ; or RESISTER
Or LITERATURE. To he coritinue•d annually.
ARTHUR ALKIN, Editor. •.
Printed fur T. N. Lonpuott and U. Rees, Paternaetet-Roir.
This Work will form a lstinctsorrie Volume to Royal
printed on a fine yellow woven paper, in double columns. Th#,
plan of it admits of advantages that a monthly aeries cannot
poasese. lite various publioatinnawill bo divided into classes',"
each being prec..slial by a chapter containing a history of its
department af•literatuie or. science for the preceding year i ,
and as iio imbrication will be iatentionaily mutated, the sni-
cks must necessarily be mt,d^ iiiintcrous than Motiflllr
Review, and the space to La allotted ts, each secamte work
can he mole justly apportioned to its &gas. fa. iiriority tdS
norm, also, this Work will, upon thu ,eerage, Iwyn cerisider-
ablit the advantage. volume will contain at least as •
much Matter :is is comprised its the three cuisine! volumes or
the Other Reviews, and the prime of it will not; it it eurp:ted,
exceed halt the annual subscriptibir of them. •

Day is publiihcd, price 4s. 6d. its bonds,
:OBSERVATIONS on DISEASES of the
UFF.RUS • including 11.4natki of CANCER, Pig-Y-
-AWS, FALSE CbtiCEPTION, &c.
•REES, M. D.
Formerly Physician to- the Leicester-strut Diqymmary for
Fe:nate Patient:, tinder the. Patronage of Her Roya:
nets the Duette*: of York.
9To be had of Allen, Printer, No. 15, Paternoster-row ;
Callow, Crown court, Princes street, Soho ; Cv‘t, 'Thom
vr..s.t, Borough; and of the Author, No. 6, :viarn-stre,t-
AdaJi.ty.

•

• • •

ESSAY
03 THE CHAP ACTrR AND CAPACITY or Tril
ASIATICS, AYD PARTICULARLY OF JItLE :44-•
TIVTS 01 HINDOOSTAN.

Rv Mr. ErYWAkD
Of the New Caege of Fort Wii:larn.
We cannot be surprised that the effeminacy of
the peope in hot climates has almost always ren-
dered them slaves. Thus there reigns in Asia a
servile spirit which they have never been able to
shake off ; and it is impossible to find, in all the his-
tories of this country, a single passage which die-
covers a free soul. We never see any thing but the
heroism of slavery. Upper Asir; has been frequent-
ly subdued by the Scythians, Medes, Persians.
Greeks, Arabs, Moguls, Turks, Tartars and. Ar-
ghans ; and the Southern parts have been continue
ally subject to invasions, and have suffered many
revolutions.
But with this inveterate pusillanimity and cow;
ardice, it appears difficult to reconcile their cruel
actions, their customs and penances, so full of bar-
barity ' • the men voluntarily undergoing the great-
est hardships—the women burning themselves.--
Though framed, however, of a texture so weak as
renders them timid, they posses, at the same time,
an iningination so lively, that every obje6l makes
the strongeSt impression upon them. The same ins-.
becility of organs, which rerslers them incapable of
daring enterprises where the failure may be attended
by bodily pairs or death, contributes to produce that
remarkable apathy, so peculiarly striking to Euro-
pean observers, when the Hindoo is in circumstances
evidently desperate. That such a physical defea
does exist, will be allowed by all who have aged in
a military or judicial capacity in the Lower Pro-
vinces of Bengal ; it appears indeed to extend East=
ward to Arracans to Pegue, and to China.
. More energy is apparent, to the Westward and
Northward. To the above • defeat, toe accurate
observer may trace, perhaps, the horrid unman sa-
crifices, and the frequent public suicides of the
Hindoos, so strongly denied, by certain of their
European admirers, but proved fully by impartial
enquiry. Bigotted to the principles of their reli-
gion ; prejudiced in favour of its high state of per- •
feEtion, to the exclusion of all others ; committing
their very existence into the hands of fanatic priests
they are urged on to submit patiently to these in-
infliaions, without once venturing, or even caring • -
to enquire into the propriety or necessity of what.
they arc about to undertake ; net so much however,
it should appear, with a View of atoning for past
offences, as of attaining a degree of excellence,
which they are taught to believe these penances are
capable of conferring.
• Thus do climax and religion most forcibly con-
spire to determine tile eitteraaer of the noires of
Hindoostano the former paves the way fur any ire-
pression the latter rri4 be willing to establish,
which once received, it throws, also; eery obsta-
cle in the way of hs removal.
the above, other causes concur in pro:
du. in'* the like eiree't ; One of which, the division
of the whole body of the people into four orders or
casts, may he considered as another of these cruses
an institution ackaowledged to have obtained prior
to the records'of Authentic history, and even before
the most esniste era to which their own traditions
pretend to reach. By this arrangement he station
of every individual is unalterably hued; °his destiny
is irrevcrcable ' • and the walk of life is marked out,
from which he must never deviate, and who* bars
riers it would be impious to pass.
Speculating on a mere pessibilive, Without any -
competent appearance of probability, it certainly is
not 'difficult to assert, that the Asiatics are capable
of a much higher degree of civilization; equal, nay.
perhaps superior to the nation whicts now ranks
highest and proudest in the seale cf huropean poli-
tics. All judgment is comparative, ant more par•
ticularly when it attempts to dive into future ;
unless when the imagination, " in a line ptirenzr
rolling," spurns at every thing like experience, and.
indulges itself in contemplating
" Corgont,,, and flydt..s, and Chinizras dire'
Admitting them, however, to possess faculties.
the bait adapted for hnpruverne.nt, mos:, it shuulst
semi, cf Olen peculiar institutions must be done
away, before they are in .a sh tee ...a liciently anbiaesect
and free from prejudice is allow of their azaining
much higher dire of perthfhon. Thac it ie eny
part of our policy to arairpt, oz etery to desire the
re:oust:ll f these obstraXons, is 4 Ties:ion.
ing many poisits of great polish:at moment, unug-
a*tr/ lk adskrmS to hole.