The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-29 00:00:00

~_.,~_.

IDOLATROUS OATHS 'IN HiNDOO
COURTS OF
s.7USTICE.

The Rev. Dr. Duff, writing to ills Witness on the
subject of oaths, says Here is aunther notable
sign of reaction under the new former
times sundry anti-Christian and ideltitrous- oaths
were administered in all our courts to the nat4ves.
The Mahommedan was sworn on his ACoran, the
Brahmin On a text of the Vedas, and other Ifindoos
by the water of the Ganges, or the name of some
tutelary deity. To the undoes themselves, these
oaths, particularly dot of swearing 4 the water
of the Ganges, were very offensive. Indeed, rather'
than take them, they often submitted to inaprison -
Aleut for contempt of court. Need I say how -utterly
abhorrent the administration of them became to
the real Christian judge. At last the conscience of
one man forbade his being a party 'to the Cdola-;
trous usage; he refused any longer to adMintiter
these oaths. In his honesty and consciousness he
paid -the penalty, by being degraded, if riot vir7
tnalldy suspended, for two years. This precipitated
the iseussien of the question, as to theirtotalebo-
lition.. And soon it .question,
found that if. thex„*.ere
not speedily abolished, other civilians, highip, ' ce
would resign :the service. At length, in WO/e-de:
cree for their abolition was passed, and a lorm,of
ale solemn affirmature substituted instead: Irtbring-
mg about this happy result, our excellent friend Mr.
Hawkins had an influential share. What, then, will
he say now—what will the Christian 'people of,
Great Britain say, when they are told that, about a
Week ago, a bill was introduced into our Legisla-
tive. Council, and read a first time, for the- 'express
purpose of restoring these idolatrous oatha--
It is net, however, to be read again a second
time tillihe lapse of four months—the ileclared
object being to allow time for obtaining rizrexpres-
sion of opinion 'alike native and European. We
shall not fail to do what we can here. But it is at
home that the mainspring of influence is to be found.
May we not, then, expect that, on feceipt of the
deplorable intelligence, all the Evangelical Churches
of the British Isles shall rise in one mass, and give
rorth- such an expression of sentiment, as may
serve to blast the odious measure in its bud, and
cover its authors with confusion and shame ? May
not the Indian Minister be called for interfere in
the matter without delay ? Or,.if heis not armed
with- power to control our Legislative Ceunell, may
not the I-imperial Parliament be called on to inter
pose its resistless authority to deliver uqeoni the
threatened iniquity ? .„
" The only pretext alleged for- bringiq forward
so disgraceful a bill is the exceeding lenco of
perjury. The prevalence of this high. .1 1,0 against
God and man is, alas! a matter of noto-
riety. Perjury is as rife as rice liana:it; *but the
restoration of idolatrous oathais surely Abt the cure
for it; When these oaths were' formeilirOnainis-
,
tered, fraud and chicanery, bribery andAptruption,
lying and perjury, fornied in: all our Indic ii' courts
the almost absolute rule; truth, the race and soli:-
tory exception. Affirmation, with or without
oath—it is all one ; with or without oath,' it. is
an, almost universal lie ;and the idolatrous oath
only addi one sin to another. ,No, no ;. apart
from the only, effectual remtdy which the re-
novating influence of Christianity supplies, the true
and proper legal remedy
-is the enactment of a law::
for the summary punishment of perjury. At present
the state of the Taw on the subject of perjury is
such that, practically, the most notorious perjures-
can escape with absolute impunity: This he knows
full well; and hence he scruples not openly and un-
blushingly to ,perjure himself, with a smile of
pertinence, or'a scowl of defiance, in thetery face
of the judge ! Let the British people, then, insist
On the non-restoration of the abominable idolatrous
baths ; let them insist on the abolition 'of them in
the :Queen's Supreme Courts ; let them. insist on
the passing of an effective law agatrist.perjuryTancl
one important step will be gained: towards the.
clearing of the horrid Augean stable 4our judicial
system. When, asked why such a'hiw should not
be passed at once, the usual answer is, many at
least of the present judges, could .not be 'trusted
with the administration of it. Let us, then„haVe
proper law, and proper judges -to administer it.
Here is a subject worthy of the deliberation of
Lord Stanley and his new Connell."

A DIABOLICAL EXHIBITION'.

(From the Nw Orleanut Delta.)
In the year 1832, said to us yesterday a distin.--
guished legal gentleman of New Orleans, I visited
Paris in the course of a. professional tour, that my
Americanism might be polished town by a little
attrition among the gentle particles of. Parisian
society. I found the world-of Paris irki very eon-7
siderable state of excitement, in conseqanee of an
extraordinary performance which was - nightly
exhibited by an eastern juggler, and which was
nothing more'or less than the apparent decapitation
of a man in the presence of an audience, under the
very noses of a committee of medical gentlemen,
who stood only so far distant while the. operation
was being performed as to escape the swing of then
long two-edged sword With which the juggler.stnote
off the head. I went to see the exhibition, which
took place in the theatre, in company with several
American gentlemen. The theatre was crowded
with between two and three thousand'. spectators,
and:.th , urtain was up, displaying- a coniftion table,.,ry
vt:i: et long, upon the stage, at the 'very edge of
i
e
which I obtained a seat, having gone very. early.
At the given time, the juggler,-a. singular-look-
ing man, came upon thestage;withhiS shirt sleeves
rolled up to his shoulders, and bearing a long
heavy, two-edged sword. He upsethe table upon
the boards, and showed that there 'Was' -no c01f,.. s-
cealed drawer or other recess, arld:placed.hiin:.
self in 'the blaze of the „footlighti; „near the
edge Or the stage: In a few words he stated what
he was going to do, and requested some- of ther
audience to come forward upon the Cage, that they
might see there was no deception A number of
medical gentlemen, who had been-chosen as a enc4o4-
inittee to intrestiagate the matter, if• possible, took
their position upon t]p stage, and soon after
tt the
victim, who,;'" had been sitting in. .the parque e,
mounted the stage, removed,Ais coA and.
ncravat,u
turneffibafk his shirt-collar, and'hmtidnostvo
moreupo
1 his bacleffi the table, elevated h
t_he headißman's weapon.
fairly expose his .neck'
ai u - oo ing
brought it down
The juggler then raisedhy keen and& •f 1 l IC
—I say- hiought it down upon the neck, for no one
sword, and,,rgivingita sweep,wide ,
could -see that he did not, even those Within three
feet-Of him—upon the neck of the Aubjeet -With great
force:-
Bloodspurted high into tlii air,
Sinn° of it fallin
•
on our party, and deluged the, stage, while the
most fearful sound, 'a, something between a groan -
Ind a shriek of horrorfrom_the-, whole assemblage,
shook the building, and
,nurnefOus women-luid
some Males fainted in their seats, and were ' borne
Out by the ushers of the house. - The juggler raised
lii.S sword again, repeated the bl°7' and the dig-,
severed head fell upon the floor! Taking it by the
heir hey held- it up to the 'audience .for about five
minutes, until the blood had ceased to flow from.
the severed arteries, the lower jaw had fallen,
and the faCe had assumed the appearance, of 4,
, eorpse, then_ throwing it heavily upon the 'Stage
he requested the committee to °examine it, which
i they did, passing it from hand to hid. They then
examined the body on the table, from the head-
less neck of whiehAhe blood had not. yet ceased to.
:cli'op upon the-I:to& . of .the stage.; they lifted the
limbs and- let_ them fall-with the limy inertia °f
lifeless Matter; and, ofpurse4renounced the man
the
dead to all intents and purposes. _, _
After they had concluded the inveitigationt
juggler informed the audience that he going t°
' illit the man's head on again, and restore
Takifig lip: the head, he laicl•"it on the t fitted
and began
the two parts ofd the neck to each other' fato life.
so. In about
to mutter and make signs over tiled
five minutes the lately decapitated m towards
ghastly andliorrible face, winte
acBiln turned his
exceeding.,
the. atidinice,pd excitement followed,
when the first blow
if anything; that which occurrnied
of the stota _fen. In at :eV: ors cats the eyelids
yeti the eyes; Wearing
by degrees a life-like
his limbi, the plait
corpse-likeop-en e d,.aitidshdiaiznp;l,
sozne colour rettirned tot a graduallyglassy,
streeflicaeti:olicrafete.lin.
stretchingresumed his Coat- walked
rose from. the table,
mingled „
with
down from the stage and the crowd.
.Th
The "exhibition was e neck of the appa-
rently and sear
Ydditectite the cicatrice of a newly-healed weimd.'
°
decapitated man bore a red
ethd
asmy own
it, rentl
nee;"*liich were as
SClewcewivithose of tens-of.thouiands of
otherpersons. I could in no way, consistently with
effectually c thistnai fy
reason, account for any feature of this horrible
thrilling feat of trickery. I never heard-of the trick
king performed by any other man, and possiblT it
originated and died with him. However, it' is
scarcely more unaccountable than many displayed
c
eats of the adroit fraternity of Eastern jugglers. ,
. 1
eel 1 - ,

DISGRACEFUL ATTACK ON CARDINAL WISEMAN.
Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, while proceeding to
the residence of Edward Chaloner, Esq., at Old Swan, near
Liverpool, on Thursday night, in the carriage of that gen-
tleman, was followed by a crowd of people, who hooted and
yelled most furiously, and some of them threw stones at the
carriage, which was much damaged—fortunately, however,
no person was hurt. The police succeeded in apprehending
at
the ringleader, a lad about 19 or 20, who was brought up
the police-court yesterday (Friday). The prisoner, who
gave his name as John Lever, residing at 13, ltay-street,
said that he did not throw anystones. This statement was
contradicted by the officer who took him into custody, mid.
risoner on the in-
Mr. Mansfield severely reprimanded the P
famous outrage which he had been pipty of and fined him
£2 and costs, or two months' impn.sonmett with hard
I labouri . ,