Mobile register and journal., 1841-12-31

SLAVERY IN INDIA.--It was stated by Profess sor Adam, some time since, able article this subject, that Slavery existed in British IndIa, to very considerable extent. This statement created onile an excitement the other side of the water, where it was more than intimated that the statement was incorrect and that slavery was unkOwn in the Brisish Do,ninions. Professor Adam however suc- ceeded in establishing the ruth of his remarks, to the conviction of unprejudiced mind. But if there should remain any doubt on this subject it will be seen by the following report copied from late English paper of some remarks of Lord Brougham in the House ui Peers shortly before the propagation of Parliament, that slavery exists in British India, and that Tn the most rey0lting shape.
 "LoRp BReuGHAM then called the attention of the House the subject of slavery and the slave trade. After stating the law the subject of slavery and expressing his fears that British subjects had unwit tingy exposed themselves to it's penaltes by engag ing in the slave trade his l0rdshIp read extracts from the repvrt of the India law commissioners the su feet of slavery in India. These extracts gave in- stances of horrd and systematically planned murders for the sake of obtaining children to be sold into slavery. Lord Brougham, after reading the extracts, made an eloquent appeal to the Government to take steps to accelerate the abolition of such atrocities. The following extract, taken from full report of Lord Brougham's statements, supplies the most valuable of the facts adduced by his ordshp m bear ing out his position of the enormity of the crime of slave dealing in India and he read an extract from the report of the commissioners, which slrikingly pointed out one of the consequences oi slavery n India The practice to winch he alluded had only recently been brought to light, and described in report to the commissioners by Major Seeman. The description was under the head Megpunnalsm, which this gentleman describes as Il part of notorious practice for the purpose gettng slaves. It IS stated m his repert:-"Ihis system of murderng indigent parents for their children has been hourishing since the siege of Bhurpore, in iS26 and the cause of their conining their depredatons to this class of people l L... k,a, tta Ia, fnttnI far these children in all parts of the country, and the facility with which they nveigled their parents into their society. They were in the habit of dsposing of the female children thus obtained for every large sums, to respectable natiyes or to the prostitutes o the different cities they visited, and they found this system more lucrative than that of nurderng travellers in good crcumslances, and less likely to be brough to the notice of the local authorities, as enquiries were seldom made liter tine victims by their surviving relations. These gangs, contrary to the customs O | those whose proceedings are now so well known t us, invariably take their families with them on then expeditions; and the female members of the gang art employed as inveiglers win the confidence ot th' emigrant families they fall in with on the road. The, introduce these families the gang, and they art prevailed upon to accompany them to some place suitable for their designs upon them, where the parents murdered by tho men, while the women take cart of the children.
 "After throwing their bodies into the river, d otherwise dsposlns of them, the men return to the  women in the camp; and when the children inquir, after their parents, they told that they have solt them to certain members of the gang, and departed If they appear to doubt the truth of these assertions they are deterred from further inquiries by ihrea of instant death. They alowedto associate liee with the fanatics of the murderers, and ina few day' their grlef subsidies, and they become reconciled t their fate. The female children are either adopted by members of the gang, sent in charge to the wo | men, to be disposed of. They find ready sale fol l d.. tt,oR Rr,n nT nected with these gangs in their murderous trade, an' all of them are well known in Upper India to trafh in children. These Brnjarahs resell the children t' the prostitutes of the different ctes who soon becom acquainted with the fate of their parents, and ar, much pleased to learn it, as it relieves them of al apprehension that they will ever come to reclaun | them"
 He then gives the examination of some of th wretches connected with these gangs of murderers One of these outcasts says, "Ws call eur trade viz