The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-06-28

0lfonno Ruasoou1lon inlIS1ia
.Aseesat lslAse fton . ninio6a1y In IN
= acouainlD ~ with singular form III
p1rroce1isS, ariling from tie prsjudices
49,, and The attempt 70 revive old
NJ and hws under the Queens procla
not;on q religious frss1oa. The account
isso interesting that We give i without
abridgemsnt :.
sNInvancore, on the western coast of
Southern India, il an Independents king
dam. The King or Rajah 10 under Brit
- protection, and the British Resident
L reneally supposed to have more power
than the King himself. The people are
in general divided into three glasses Bra
mies, numbering about $1,000 Mains
and other Sudras, numbering 400, 900;
and belov them the Sharuars, Elavers,
Psr;as, etc.,, about equal in number to
the Sudras. To show the character Of
the last-samsd class, (the Sudras,) who
srs the most influential, ] will state one
fAet, vis: marriage - unknown. and .
nan's children have no claim to his prop
srty, his sisters only being his legal heirs
You can easily imagine how much such .
state of things must debase the people,
aud how low . position females must hold.
The Brahmins chiefly hold the govern
msut Offices, and the Sudras are the cult
vators and masters. The other castles
we're formerly mere slaves, but the Hon
orabls Company many years ago abolished
slavery among them, or compelled the
Rsiah to do 70. Still the Sudras hold
the lower caste down. One custom
which has he'd to Ill the persecution Of
late deserves more special notice. The
lower caste woman we're never allowed for
merly TO wear any clothing above the
waist. When Christianity was FIRST intro
duced among the people. the Sudras kept
entirely aloof. But many Sharnars re-.
ceived the word gladly, and a. matter of
decency, the missionaries petitioned the
Queen Of former reign to allow the
Christian women to wear an upper gar.
ment. She feared tumult among the
Sudras, 30 refused TO allow the upper
cloth, but gave permission for them to
wear sort Of tight jacket, such as the
Mohammedan women wear. This they
did for several years but at this Moham-
medans were always enraged, and the Or
der of permission was some years since
Withdrawn. But - Christianity in the
neighboring province of Tinnevelly was
embraced BY large numbers Of the low
castles who could wear what they liked,
and in the Trsvancore district some 90
600 had become Christians, that strict
prohibition of proper clothing for the
women was waived, and many Of the Shar-
mars being rich, became too influential and
powerful to be disturbed with impunity,
and their women wore the upper cloth
like the Sudras. But since the mutiny
at the north, and good deal of excite.
ment attending the change of government
the low caste and Christian women who
had modesty enough to cover the uppe,
part of their bodies, have been exposed Ia
many insults and abuses. Often in the
streets theit cloths and jackets would be
torn of, and they jostled in the crowd :
and if the offence was repeated, they wo'd
be beaten, and their husbands could give
no protection. Any resistance was sum-
marily punished by burning.houses down.
This excitement has been increasing un-
til within few months it has burst upon
the native Christians with great fury. Or
t" speak more definitely, believe very
little actual persecution took place till
December last, when the Queens procla-
nation, assuming from the Hon. Cos: pany
the reins of government, was read. This
proclamation has proved most unfortu-
nate affair. The plain English is bad
enough, but the translation into the ma.
tive language is infinitely worse. The
Queen says she does not wish to force her
subjects to embrace Christianity, but the
translation makes her say she does not
wish any Of her subjects to embrace
Christianity. She says she intends to pro-
tect all her subjects in the exercise Of the
rites of their religion. The people under
stand that to mean that all the old cruel
rites, which had years ago been abolished
such as hook-swiuging, Woodworking, in
fanticids, etc., were at once to be restcr-
ed, aud that Of course implied that mission
aries we're to be driven from the country,
and have no further permission to preach
new religion. Almost Immediately af-
ter the reading of this proclamation, the
Sudras in Travancore commenced taking
measures to bring down the lower castles,
including the Christians, to the level of
slaves, aud to rid themselves of all mis-
sionaries. Within short time they set
fire to and burned down nine or ten Chris
tian churches; they tore the jackets and
clothes from any christian female whom
they could lay their hands upon; and
strange to say, the Rajah, though he does
not approve Of all the violence that has
been used. says the lower castles have bro't
it upon themselves by putting ON clothes
contrary to law. The missionaries have
appealed to the Resident, General Cullen,
out he simply sanctions what the Rajah
said, and is willing to doom all low caste
females to the indecent exposure Of their
bodies, which can be found only in the
realms of barbarism. The missionaries
have appealed to the Queen. A letter
from one of the missionary ladies to Mrs.
few days since, says that four
Christian women and several heather wo-
men now lie incarcerated in Jail, for no
other crime than that they dared to put
on the upper cloth. Troubles Of this
kind We never have in the Madura dis,
trict.-N. Y. Tribune.
TAE CAPITOL DoNE.-Some one hundred and
City tons of iron.work for the Interior Of The
dome has just been received from New York,
and the work has just received new impetus.
This iron is now in pr ocess of being put in place
10 Go which considerable number Of workmen
Are engaged, giving . busy appearance to part
Of the Capitol which has had to rest consider
able time for the necessary castings. We learn
that by December next the whole Of the first