Star.
London, England, 1821-06-21 00:00:00

. HOUSE OF COMMONS.

An Account of the weekly Issue of Bank-notes forthe last
three months was presented. pursuant to an Order of the I loos:•.
A Person from the Office of the Chief Secretary for Ireland
presented an Account of the Appropriation of the Sum of
£lO,OOO granted for the Issue of Proclamations in that country.
A Petition was presented from lietford, against the Poor Be-
lief Amendment Bill. _ _ .

.....
A sitna4r Petition was presented from certain Individuals in
Norfolk. - - -- -

Mr. SWAN presented a Petition from the Rev. Mr. Melton.
The Rev. Gentleman stated, that he bad invented a plan by
which the Mails, could be 'carried with passengers and luggage,
as they now were, at the rate of one mile and a quarter in the
hour faster than at present, without any increase of labour to the
horses. Referred to the Committee on the Extra Post Hill.
_ _ .

The Naval Stores, the Coal Drawback, the Bank of Ireland,
and the Ordnance Lands Bills, were read a thitd ti me, and passed.
The Consolidated Fund Bill was read a second time, and
conunitted f,,r to-morrow. _

The Scottish i\llr 13ill was read a second time.

Sir .1. M A lIJ OItIBA N KS supported the provisions of this
Bill, as necessary for the relief of the Scotch Brewers and Malt-
,ters, on account of the irferior quality of Scotch Barley. .
Mr. C.% LvEaT hoped the same indulgence would he ex-
tended to the Maltsters of ground Barley ill this country—a
description of Barley greatly inferior to Scotch Barley.
Mr. CCRWEN approved of the redaction, as regarded Scot-
land: it would lower the price, and increase consumption. He
hoped the same indulgence would be extended to the Barley
growers of Cumberland.—The Bill was then committed for

The Scotch Distilleries Drawback Bill was read a second
time, and committed for Friday.
Mr. BRIG lIT presented a Petition from Bristol, praying
the restoration of the Constitution as established in 1 GBS, the
period of the Revolution.
Mr. BEN N ET•I• took this opportunity of adverting to the fate
of the motion brought lot ward by hint on a former night, fur
excluding persona bolding places at the pleasure of the Crown
from seats is Parliamo.t ; and declared, whatever reception
such a motion might meet with, lie would not &sist atom
bringing the subject forward annually, so long as the House
continued what it now was, and whilst so many of its Mem.
hers, to use the old language of the Constitution, hAd livery
under the Crown.—The Petition was read, and ordered to be
printed.
Several Petitions were presented against the Poor Laws
Amendment rim . .

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved the
Order of the Day fox committing the Tobacco Duty Bill.
Mr. CALVERT ol,jected to the Bill, and repeated his for-
mer arguments against it. Ile wished the Right Ilan. Gen-
tkman to postpone the Bill for the present.
The CII A NCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER consented to
postpone it.
The Exchequer Bills Bill, and the Loan Bill, were read a
third time and passed.
Sir J. NEWPORT complained that, in his absence, the
Bank of Ireland Bill, which was a dropt Order at yesterday,
should have been read a third time and passed this day before
his arrival, although' he had intimated his intention of taking
the sense of the ! louse on the clause excluding Roman Catho-
lics from the direction.

Mr. BEN N Err also complained, that the Audit Bill was read
in the same clandestine manner, at half-pact one o'clock in the
morning. Ile believed that was a circumstance of which no
Gentleman in the House bad the least suspicion.
Mr. DENMAN complained of this course a; a want of cour-
tesy towards his Right lion. Friend the Member for Waterford.
He would advise the Bight lion. Baronet to bring in a Bill to-
morrow to repeal the clause to which he objected, and on which
he had intended to take the sense of the House.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, there
was not a Gentleman in the House whom he would be more
anxious to accommodate than the Right lion. Gentleman; but
it would be recollected, that the clause to which the Right Hon.
Baronet had alluded, had been fully discussed on a former night.
A message from the Lords announced their loedships' assent
to several Public and Private Bills.
Mr. HUME complained that certain Returns which he had
moved lot on a former occasion, respecting the Land Tax, had
not been presented.
The fat mer Order being then discharged, on the motion of
the lion. Member, he moved that there be laid before the
House Accounts of all the Assessments paid as Land Tax in
Westminster and London for the last twenty years, with the
amount of Surplus and the items of Expenditure.—Ordered.
Ile also moved that there be laid before the House an Ac-
count of all Sums paid as Interest on the Unfunded Debt, from
the 6th January, 1786, to the sth January, 1821.—Ordered.
He next moved for an Account of the Public Debt of Great
Britain and Ireland, from the sth'January, 1766, to the sth
January, 1821.—Ordered.
The lion. Member then moved for an Account of all Ships
employed at the Cape of Good Hope, North America, and
other Colonial Stations for the last ten years. He moveilike-
wise for a Committee to select and arrange such Documents
as miLht relate to the mode of supplying the Metropolis with
Water.—Motion agreed to.
BURNING OF WONIEN IN INDIA.

Mr. BUXTON wished to call the attention of the I
House to the practice of females burninf, themselves.;
on the funeral piles of their husbands, and-'
urged the
necessity of Government interfering to put an end to
this practice. He thought the House would agree !
with him on this subject, when he stated, that in the
last four years no less a number than 2366 females
had thus destroyed themselves publicly : how many'
had thus sacrificed themselves privately the House
could not asceitain: and when it was recollected that ,
many of these females were scarcely more than chil-
dren, and that they generally ascended the pile in a
state of intoxication, he thought the House would
agree with him in the necessity of incpliring into these
circutnstances ; especially as the French, Dutch, and
Danes, ltd abolished this horrible practice-in the dis-1
tricts under their controul. The laws even of the na-1
tives themselves were not attended to by the Priests ;
for their own laws requited, that no female under
sixteen years of age should be allowed thus to immo-
late themselves; yet ins:a:lies occurred of girls of

PRIZ'F, SE\ 1:.*•: Pt: N,

fourteen, twelve, ten, and in one case a child of eight
years of age, being allowed to sacrifice themselves.
It was also a part of their law, that no woman should
be sacrificed but with her own free consent; but even
this rule was not attended to. He had this day con-
versed with a respectable Clergyman, Mr. Thompson,
recently returned from India, who had ipformedhim,
that he himself, in one instance, saw a female per-
forming the last ablation, preparatory to sacrificing
herself, who fainted repeatedly, and was with diffi-
culty conveyed to the funeral pile, at the sight of
which she again fainted, and continued so long in-
sensible, that the crowd collected around became im-
patient, and the Bramins proposed to sacrifice her
whilst in this state ; she recovered, however, before
the pile was lighted, and renewed her struggles to
escape, when the Priest set lire to the faggots, and
the unfortunate woman ceased to exist. Another in-
stance he would mention, was that of a woman, whose
friends were so poor, that a sufficient quantity of fuel
to make a quick fire could not be obtained ; she
ascended the pile, however, such as it was, one of
her own sons set light to the faggots, and she was
slowly consumed, and expired in great agony. The
Hon. Member concluded with moving for copies of
all communications between the Government of In-
dia and the Government at home, on this subject.
Mr. B. BATHURST said that this example of the
Mahometan Government, in repressing the practice
in question, could have no influence upon a Govern-
ment like ours, which proceeded upon entirely dif-
ferent principles of policy and toleration. It was
also a strong and-indisputable fact, that since the re-
gulations with respect to burning had taken place,
the number of persons who had immolated them-
selves had doubled. He conceived that it would be
better for the House to trust to the natural operation
of civilization and knowledge to correct this crime,
than to endeavour to prevent it by active interference.
It was said that the Dutch, French, and Danes, had
checked this practice by every means in their power.
AU that they did was to forbid the sacrifice taking
place in certain district:; but that prohibition was to
little purpose, since it was easily evaded by the
natives taking the victim to a district where the pro-
hibition was not in force. He hoped, therefore, that
the Hon. Member would not Om any measure upon
Parliameut which would force into greater activity
the regulations which this Government had already
adopted, and which could not be stretched to a greater
extent without increasing the evil which it was the
Hon. Gentleman's object to remove.
Mr.WILBLIR FORCE was glad that his Hon.Fr lend
had brought this subject before the House. It was
true that the Hindoo laws permitted only voluntary
sacrifices, but the Priests, in many instances, forced
the victims to the funeral pile, and tied them tc
stakes, in order to prevent those « voluntar)" victims
from running away. He had no doubt that the light
of education would ultimately produce the most
beneficial effects ; and he was gratified to know that
there were no people in the world who were more
desirous of receiving instruction, and more grateful
to the persons who gave it to them, than the natives
of Hindostan—(Hear).
Mr. HUME wished to say a few words upon this
subject, as he had been some time in India, and had
some local knowledge of the it tctice under consider-
ation. So far as his observation went, these sacrifices
bad generally taken place to promote the private in-
terests of the relatives of the deceased. if any of
those relatives had interest enough with a Bramin to
induce a widow to sacrifice herself, the sacrifice took
place, and the property which she would have en-
joyed was thus transferred to the parties who had
caused her destruction—Wee:O.—lt appeared to him,
that one of the most effectual modes of putting down,
this practice, would be to grant licenses for burning
—(A laugh).—lt might appear ludicrous to some
Gentlemen, but he was satisfied that if licenses were
sold for two or three thousand rupees, the practice
.would.be less frequent, as those parties who were
now most forward to promote these burningi, would
then be generally found the most reluctant to sub-
scribe a single shilling towards the purchase of a
license—(l kar).—lle thanked his Hon. Friend for
bringing this subject before the House, as it was one
of the highest importance ; but he deprecated the
idea of 'establishing a College at Calcutta, for edu-
cating Missionaries to convert the Him:oos. It would
excite great jealousy in the • country, and might be
productive of the most dangerous consequences.
Lord BINNING said, that after the circular had
been issued by our Government, the number of im-
molations had increased, from whence he inferred,
that if any further measures were taken to put down
the practice, they would have a result precisely oppo-
site to what was desired.

Mr. CANNING said that whatever shades of dif-
ference might appear in the opinions of the Honour-
able Gentlemen who had already spoken upon this
question, there were two points upon which they
were all agreed. The first point was, that it would
be gratifying to every person possessed of feeling and
humanity if this custom could he put down ahoge-
ther ; the second was, that no coercive attempt to
put it down should be made by the British Govern-
meta. The only debateable ground, therefore, was
whether the Government should interpose its influ-
ence to put an end to this practice. Of all the eAer-
cises of human authority that was the most difficult.
Where authority existed, it was most difficult to
carry its mere wishes into effect, at the same time
divesting them of the harshness of command. The
problem which the Indian Government had to solve
was of the most difficult and delicAte nature. Ile
did not regret that this subject was brought hekre
' the House, though he could not think that the effect
of it would le to facilitate the measin es of the Go-
vernment at home, or to abridge the I rogress of the
Government abroad towards removing the pi active,
in question. He did not think that the au.hontative
interference of Parliament would stiaiulate a Govern-
mesa, which in matteks of humenity Le sti-