The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — 1824-09-16 (London, England)

WIDOWS.  A return has been made to the Houce of Commons, of the nullifier of Staters, or immolations of Ilindoo widows on the funeral piles of their husbands, which has caused a good deal of discussion in the daily prints. From these returns it appears, that the annual number of victims to this horrible superstition has hardly either increased or deems:A throughout the Bengal Presidency, as far as the report goes, at least ; though there are different numbers reported every year, yet these are not regularly greater or less than the se of the year preceding. The question upon this subject scans to be within very small h Is indeed, and to resolve itself into two beads ; tinit,—llave we, the governors of the country, aright to Interti!re with what the people of the country consider as a religious rite, and of which the victim is so voluntarily f and, seemully,—llave w•e the power to pr.:vent such a sacrifice ?  On the first of these questions there may exist some doubt. Ram Mobun Boy, the best-inforined and most liberal-minded Bramin that ha• ever lived, declare s, that there is nothing in the Willis, or Ifindoo Scriptures, which even sanctions hitch a barbarous usage ; but as his duo rine4 are not considered more cirtlnalox by his e:ountrytnen than Mr. flume's or Mr. Oii.bon's are by oars,—and as every one interprets the Scriptures after his own fashion, without much regard to tI:Q reasonable meaning of the text, his opinion must be put out of the question altogether. But one thing is certain, that even if we atimit the justice of allowing this sacrifice t 3 people come to the years of discretion, we ought not to permit those whose minds are not suffi, ciently expanded to be freed from tin shackles of parental control, and who can have none of that connubial affection for a husband to whom they arc only betrothed by the fiat of their parents, to throw away a life of which they know i not the value. We should not, in that case, hear of children of twelve, and even seven years of age, burning themselves with old men who might be their grandfathers.  If, on the other hand, it i 3 admitted that we have a right to interfere to prevent what we consider a movt atrocious murder, the means are at hand and very eadly used, and the outcry about the danger of interfering with the religious prajtulices of the natives is nonsenvieal. A police officer, with a serjeant's guard of Sepoys, has been found amply sufficient to prevent the annual sacrifice of children at Sangur Island, and no tnunnur has' been heard on the subject ; and the Thannadar or Derma of the district, with a doz n of his men armed with hill lattice (Hibernere, shillelahs), nould he amply sufficient to pan a at hole procession to the rotate, Bramins, relations, Wallahs, and all, and no complaint would ever be beard on the subject. As the matter stands at present, it does not appear that the Thannadar has any interest in interfering at all ;—if he is a Ifindoo, he will be loath to interfere with the rites of his own religion ; if, as is most frequently the cue, a Mussulman, he will look upon the sacrifice of a heathen in her idolatory as a matter so perfectly in the proper order of things, that he would not lay down his hookah to prevent a whole generation of unbelievers front petishing body and soul : but give him, in either case, a reward equal to what he would receive for killing a tiger, or intercepting a smuggler with a load of contraband salt or opium, and you will not have a Suttee from Ceylon to the Himalaya Mountains.  Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at the East India House, when the following ships were thus stationed, 'hr.:—  The Sealeby Castle, Capt. D. R. Newall, Bengal and China. Charles Want, I:Apr.--; lionihay, Capt. ; Lowther Castle. Capt. Baker; Bucking hanuhire, Capt. Iliciiant Maioipoole; and Warren Hastings, Ciiptain Richard Rawer—for China direct. The times of the ships Atlas and Herefordshire, were changed, via.:—To be afloat 4th January, 1823; sail to Gravesend 19th ditto; stay there 30 days, and be in the Downs the tad February. Last week a ship was taken on a slip in this dock-yard— liftoslren Sir Robert Seppings plan, her old false keel taken out and a new one put in and fastened, befor: the reflowing of the tide !—Piumonth Parer. PATMUNT or