Star.
London, England, 1831-10-03 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 3, 1831.

°. 13,903.

APPEAL TO THR PRIVY COUNCIL FOR
PERMISSION TO BURT OR BURN HINDOO
WIDOWS ALIVE.

A subjectconnected with the dearest intimate'
humanity is at present undergoing disoeuion be.
for. the Privy Council, if the hearing of such an
appeal as that for permission to bury or burn alive
the most innocent and helpless of -.human being.
can be said to admit of deliberation. This horrid
Appeal ls made by a few Brahmins or Priests, in
Bengal, who see in the abolition of mach an infer-
nal right the esmaieusing .leem6lll at the boil
powers with which they have se Imegimpt
of their countrymen in the most profound igno-
rance and appalling debasement.
The diabolical custom to which we allude had
its origin in the excessive jealousy of the early
Hindoo Princes for their female conneotions; and,
therefore, with a view to prevent their numerous
widows forming subsequent attachments, they
availed themselves of irresponsible power, and
with the effectual aid of the priests, under the cloak
of religion, it wm ordained, u if by sacred autho-
rity, that the wives of a Hindoo of every caste who
desired future beatitude, should immolate them-
sakes on the demise of their husbands Avarice
added fearful strength to this cruel ordinance, for
by the Hiodoo law of inheritance, as prevailing in
the lower provinces, and where, consequently,
Suttees were the most numerous, e wife inherits
an equal share of her husband's property, and it
therefore became a matter of direct interest to the
relatives of the deceased, that the intervening tea-
tretix should quit the world as soon as possible.
In the Upper Provinces, where this testamentary
enactment does not exist, Suttees were, compara-
tive speaking, but few !
From religious superstition and insatiable cupidity
arose a most unnatural state of society : sons and
brothers were to be seen urging the living sacrifice
of mothers and sisters; administering the stupify-
ing or intoxicating draught, which would either
render the wretched victim unconscious of her im-
pending fate, or stimulate her by threats when
reason became dethroned ;—then, =outrun t•lsor-
rendum' were they beheld kindling the funeral
pile for the hellish destruction of her who gave
birth or was nurtured in the same womb with the
fell destroyers !
1 To depict• the horrid scenes which took place at
these atrocious murders would be beyond the power
of language; often the wretched woman, (when
the with* and bands which had artfully bound her
to the scorched and putrid body of bins who had
been her isteebeiad, wore buesed.ossoder) has bees
seen to lush, in the agony of death, to the edge
of the flaming pile, and with outstretched, lace-
rated arms, implore mercy and protection from
her demoniac torturers, but her sons, her brothers,
her nearest and dearest kinsmen were amongst the
first to strike her back with their clubs, and .to cut
loose the huge superincumbent mass of wood, oil,
straw, and other inflammable materials, which so in
immersed the living and the dead in a vast gulph
of fire ! Some idea may be formed of the number
of these dreadful outrages against God and man by
referring to the mere authenticated or Govern-
ment registered cases in the Bengal Presidency
'alone, for a few years ; the number of unregistered
are so numerous it would be scarcely possible to
hazard a conjecture.

liambor of Rogiolerad Slakes in glee Bowl Proslelekey
alone, fro* 1816 to 1828.
Years. Suttees. Years. Suttees.
1815 244 1821 364
1816 280 1822 300
1817 428 1823 308
1818 5t 1824 348
181.9 388 1825
1810 337 1826 518
It will be seen from the foregoing, that the le-
gislative enactments by the East India Company
(or the purpose of regulating how these female
murders were to be perpetrated, had the effect of
increasing, rather than as was intended, diminish-
ing the number of cases, as the Hindoo priests
artfully pretended, that by so doing, the Bade)
Government considered, and admitted their dia-1
bolical acts to be legal and justifiable !
In fact, since the decisive battle of Plessey, in
1756, when the British power in India became
firmly established, upwards of seventy thousand
widows have been (although living under the pro-
tection of parliament, and claiming our guardian-
ship as British subjects) cruelly massacred ! What
horrible imaginings may net be conjured up at this
" murder most foul, strange, and unnatural?"
In tikes 9f pestilence to which India is sub-
ject, when thousands upon ,thousands perish, the
dreadful state of society may in some degree be
conjectured, and 14 all times the myriids of help-
less orphans cast upon the cold charity of a
selfish world, makes the blood boil with
indignation to think that such crimes have
been so long and so iniquitously tolerated.
A Brahmin possessing the privilege of marrying
as many wires as he pleased, and .the demoralized,
priest-ridden farmer or peasant thinking the high-
est honour conferred on his family, was, by hi,
sacerdotal pastor seizing on all his female children
was glad to add as much wealth as he could to
the all-powerful temptations of,youth and beauty,
hence the number of immolations in this caste
was f4r greater than any other. Twenty-two
females, fur instance, were burned with Ununtu,
a Bramin, who died et Bagnapore. This priest
had more than one hundred wires. The fire wa4
kept kindling for tltireo dais. Oa .the first dish
three wives were burned; on the second day,, six
and the third day, the remainder. Ununtu hut
married in one houeelq9r sisters. two of whom war
burned with rt his coyest. Asho time berme Lor
.Bentinck's order, a Katah, in the hill country, who
died, bad twenty-eight wives burned with hiti
body.
In some instances they were uld, blind, an
decrepid, at eighty, ninety, anst-even 95 years cot,

'age; bat the grom.re•rjority were young, hat being
a Brahmin's strongest incentive.
It will be seen from the following table that
sixty-two of the ateedered widows were perfect.
children. This, amount is derived from an annual
list laid before Parlimmet for five yens, from 1815
to 1820, and we repeat, this is merely die register-
ad return :
Ags„,.. 17 16e 18 18 14 13 12 10 8
al load J 4 1 22 6 3• 1 10 1 3
Who can read such a statement as the forego.
tug and not blush for human nature, and what
Britons' to think when they hear that a
himself a mea,nay-moss an Itingli•b•
MAR , (goading beams the Privy Council of
ibis Cbristifwand most humane nation for permis-
sion to resume the perpetration of such deeds ?
We disown the monster as not being of our spe-
cies, who now appears before the highest tribunal
of this empire, in behalf of a few bigoted, blood-
thirsty priests in Bengal. Had he a mother, had
be a sister, has he a wife ? Has be no kindred
feeling with humanity ? or does he feast his insen-
sate soul with dreams of savage delight at the hellish
torture awaiting lovely, virtuous, angelic woman ?
Who that lays claim to the slightest particle of
feeling; but would shun as a plague, the wretch
who has travelled fifteen thousand miles of the
trackless ocean, had his life saved from the perils
of shipwreck by a merciful Providence, and after
many months deliberation since his landing on
the free shores of Albion, has thus dared to cast a
stigma on this nation by supplicatingfrom the Privy
council of our beloved and revered monarch a li-
cence for the recontinuation of a rite which only
the devil himself could conceive or demons
execute!

• This Attorney was in Calcutta,,on the 4th Dec.
1829, 'when Lord W. Bentinck, with a firmness
to which his predecessors were stranger+, abolished,
by a single stroke of the pen, the further toleration
of female murder—he knows that the merciful in-
terposition of the British Government, in behalf of
humanity, of civilisation, of Christianity, was
bailed with enthusiasm by millions upon millions
of the very Hindoos themselves, with the exception
of a few miserable bigots in Calcutta—that a de-
potion, including the most,learned and wealthy
'Brahmins in Bengal, waited on the Governor Ge-
nerallto express their heartfelt satisfaction at his
truly philanthropic act—that even at Boners's, the
most superstitious and reputedly sacred place in
Hindnostan, an assembly of Hinder, priests pro-
ceeded to meet his Lordship, and congratu-
late the Government on the wisdom and be-
nevolenoe of its meesonws, fur the protection
extended to their ,helpless and unoffending
countrywomen—that the whole bcdy of our
noble i3epoy army were enraptured with the
that net the slightest semblance o riot or dissatis-
faction took place throughout. all • that,
since the promulgation of the Bopreme.Govern-
nsent edict, in 1829, not a female has been sacri-
ficed, and the lives of upwards of two thousand
Hindoo women have been saved from the herein
pile! This Attorney, we say, knew all this—be
knew that Mr. (now Sir Herbert) Compton, refused
a largesum of money rather than revise even the draft
of a petition on this horrid subject—he knew that
no British minister would hearken to so unearthly a
,prayer—he knew that nconfident hope was enter-
tained in Calcutta, that the general saying of the
Hindoos--" Every European has his price"—
would not, on this occasion, be verified ; and yet
be bed the wickedness or se hypocrisy to latter
the natives, that their petition mold most /nobs-
bly be granted, and that he -woukrreasain in Eng-
land at their expense until his pious mission was
aeconsplished.
Of the decision which the Privy Council will
cense to there cannot be a doubt ; they have au-
thority of GOD and man for pronouncing Suttee
to be deliberate murder of the most revoking kind;
and they have the great Apostle of his Country-
men, and the most learned of Brahmins, Rajah
Ramohun Roy, to inform them that such a custom
is not more directly repugnant to the dictates of
humanity, than it is to the gettbine, mild, and
benevolent precepts of the Brahtriins, which pro-
claim, that " a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, if,
after the decease of her lord, she devote herself to
pious austerity !"—East India Magazine.
• One Bathie, an Attorney, is the person who,bas re.
ceived a large sum of money from a few Hindoo priests for
bringing their petition to England, sod prosecuting it before
the Privy Council. The same Community have gent a pe-
tition against the free seulemant of Englishmen fa oar
&atom dominions !
HOUSE OF TOR 6-8,-;w.. I.
_ _

The LORD CHANCELLOR, LORD OHARLICXOIIT,
the Earl of Dltiero, est to beer Appeals.

11011-.1111'..

Sir E. Sworn replied in this cam, which was part beard
yesterday.
The Loan CHANCILBOS postponed lying his jukment.
This was the last Appeal, with the exception of Lord Ken.
singtoa and Pugb,, and Harris and Kemble, In which the
votive were ready to primed this melon, the former of
which, we undentand, was appointed-to be heard to4lay,
and the latter on Wednesday next.
DIXON V. CONXIWORAN.
The I,OID Caaxcer.Loa.gaire judgment In this Use, in
whichthe question was, how far s person in poeseesion, as
the owner of an estate is -flatland, aiold so deal with the
estate ,Is to tie ars 'himself sad to defeat the claim of Ole
subsequoot creditors by any deed in the nature of an entail ?
In the Schenan case it bad been decided that a party could
do so where the deed was onerous ; in the present ease, how.
ever, the Court eif Sea.lea cotaid not. loaf* to the opinion
tltat.ths find Ahat had been %spouted was of such a nature,
and therefore upset the transection. The Lord Chancellor
concurred in that judgment, and ordered it 'vibe affirmed.
sun Alto OTHIBia V. SILL *an otrasas. •
The Loan Curarcattoa, in giving judgment in this
easoosaid, that when the eves WM ant beard, after buries
counsel for the appals:us, he had•defetred hearing the coon.
set for the relpondento, It haring becurred to hint that there
..was an iltegalby on the face °ribs instrument fortniortbe
grotadotehe action. ;Hatay einsiderd this, be then. di-
rected* oboe points-or the ease to be
.argued by one coon-
sel en s aide.and boll wired at a conviction of the corrects
nese of the &Salem.f the learned Jedges in the wort below
on that patt-of the-ease. 'lle Oboithl therefore reeematead
their Lordships to aarm the judgment of the c .urt below.
•
Judgment affirmed.

PRICE SEVENPENCE.

NURNTISLAND WHALE Mime cosarAwy V. WK.
THOTTNR. ESQ. ♦ND OTHERS.
The Logo CHANCELLOR maid, when this cue was last
before their lordships, he had given big judgment at great
length, reserving the point as to the anomie of costs. He
should now recommend that 2001. costs be added to that,
isignient.
DICK V. CUTEINNTSOW.,-CROSS A/PEA4
Judgment &fanned on both appeals.
In the ease of " Her v. Vaughan," judgment was alsu
Ahmed.