and benevolence of disposition, some of their customs and usages denote the most singular unfeelingness, and most savage brutality. (Bigl. iv. 312.)

The horrid practice of infanticide, sanctioned by custom, and tolerated by government, is here carried to the most shocking extent.

The police of Pekin, says a late writer, employ persons to go about the streets at an early hour, every morning, for the purpose of picking up the children, that have been thrown out in the night. The bodies are carried to a common pit without the walls, into which, those, that are alive, as well as those that are dead, are promiscuously thrown. According to the best accounts, no fewer, than nine thousand infants, are thus inhumanly butchered by their unfeeling parents, or thrown out and buried alive every year, in the city of Pekin; and it is supposed, that about an equal number are destroyed in the same manner, in the other parts of the empire. The substance of this account is taken from Barron a late traveller in China.

"The practice of infanticide, says Sir Wm. Jones, so far as regards female infants, is fully substantiated with respect to a particular tribe on the frontiers of Juanpore; a district of the province of Benares. A race of Hindoos, called Rajekoomars, reside there. And it was discovered in 1789 only, that the custom of putting to death their female offspring, by causing their mothers to starve them, had long subsisted, and did actually then very generally prevail among them. The resident at Benares, where the Rajekoomars dwell, had an opportunity of authenticating the existence of the custom from their own confessions."

Nothing can be more satisfactory, than this evidence. The illustrious author, from whose communication this extract is made, introduces the account by remarking, that the crime alledged is of such a nature, as ought not without the most unexceptionable evidence, to be believed. Yet he considered the fact, as fully substantiated.

The practice is common among a race of Hindoos, called Rajpoots. Without alledging any other reason, than the difficulty of providing for daughters, they starve their female infants to death.

To a similar fact, we have a more recent witness in Dr. Buchanan; from whose memoirs the following is taken. “If a child refuse the mother's milk, whether from disease, or from any other cause, it is supposed to be under the influence of an evil spirit. In this case, the babe is put into a basket, and hung upon a tree, for three days. It generally happens that before the expiration of that time, the infant is dead, being destroyed by ants, or by birds of prey. If it be alive at the end of three days, it is taken home, and means are used to preserve its life."

As to the general moral character of the Hindoos, the author, last mentioned, has exhibited the testimony of three competent Judges. The first, a King of Hindostan, who was well acquainted with the higher class of the Hindoos. The second, a city magistrate, who was conversant with the lower classes. The third, an author, well versed in their mythology. The first of these was a Mahometan; the second a modern philosopher; and the third a Christian.

According to the first, who was no less a personage, than Tamerlane the great, "The inhabitants of Hindostan and Bengal, are equally debilitated in their corporeal, and inert in their mental powers. They are inexorable in their temper, and at the same time, so penurious and sordid in mind, that nothing can be obtained from them, but by personal violence. It appears, unquestionable to me, said that mighty chieftain, that this people are under the displeasure of the Almighty: otherwise a prophet would have been appointed for them to turn them away from the worship of idols, and fire, and cows, and to direct them to the adoration of the true God. Like those dæmons, who, with a view to deceive, can assume the most specious appearances, the native of Hindostan cultivates imposture, fraud, and decep

tion, and considers them to be meritorious accomplishments. Should any person trust to him the care of his property, that person will be only the nominal possessor of it."

The second witness is Mr. Holwell, who was a city magistrate at Calcutta, about the middle of the last century. "The Gentoos," says he," are as degenerate, crafty, and superstitious, litigious, and wicked a people, as any race of beings in the old world, if not eminently more so; especially the common run of Bramins. And we can truly aver, that during almost five years, that we presided in the Judicial Court of Calcutta, never any murder, nor other atrocious crime came before us, but it was proved, in the end, that a Bramin was at the bottom of it."

Now, if such were, in general, the character of the instructors of religion, we wonder the less at that entire want of integrity, which he charges upon the people.

The third witness is Capt. Wilford, author of Essays on Indian and Egyptian Mythology, and who had long resided in the society of the Bramins. "The Pundit of Capt. Wilford having, for a considerable time, been guilty of interpolating his books, and fabricating new sentences in old works, to answer a particular purpose, was at length detected, and publicly disgraced. As a last resort to save his character, he brought ten Bramins, not only as his compurgators, but to swear by what is most sacred in their religion to the genuineness of the extracts."

This depravity of morals was the legitimate offspring of their religous system. Agreeably to a remark made in regard to the ancient pagans, it may be said of those Hindoos, that their religion corrupted them. Such was the character of their gods, and such the ceremonies observed in their worship, that moral sensibility and discernment must have been gradually destroyed. By those scenes, which were exhibited at their temples on days of public festivity, the law written upon the heart must have been effaced, and all distinction between virtue and vice confounded.

Of a similar tendency were their ideas of a retribution. (Ins. of Mos. Ch. xxiii.) Nothing could be more inadequate, than their standard of right and wrong. We look in vain, among their institutions, for those great principles of morali ty, alike recognized in every system of true religion, wheth er natural or revealed. They acknowledged a heaven; but it was not to be exclusively the reward of virtue. They feared a hell; but it was not vice alone which put them in danger of being sent thither. Future punishment was threatened to those, who should kill an animal, or even through ig norance, shed blood from the body of a Bramin. "Whereas, those rulers of the earth, say they, who, desirous of defending each other, exert their utmost strength in battle, without ever averting their faces, ascend after death, directly to heaven." (Page 269, 264.)

It was observed, in a former lecture, that according to the testimony of Mr. Marsden, whose history of Sumatra is mentioned in terms of high approbation, the inhabitants of that island render worship to no Supreme Being. The same author, as quoted by Col. Symes, expresses a belief, that the inhabitants in the northern part of the island eat human flesh; and the authorities, on which he grounds his belief, says Col. Symes, seem to authenticate the fact. It does not however appear, that human flesh was substituted by them in place of ordinary food, but eaten rather, as a barbarous ceremony, to indicate revenge on their enemies, or abhorrence of crimes, the only victims being prisoners taken in war, or capital convicts." The New Zealanders do this, though they believe, that the soul of a man, whose body is thus devoured, is doomed to eternal torments.

In the Boston Repertory for August, if I mistake not, 1810, we were told, that a British ship's crew, consisting of a number between thirty and forty, were, all but one, eaten by the inhabitants of New Zealand.

This account is rendered the more credible from its coincidence with the character of the New Zealanders, as given us

by Pinkerton, who represents it, as customary, for them, to devour their captives taken in war.

In Anzico, a kingdom in the northwest of Africa, it is asserted, that the markets are supplied with human flesh! nay, it is even affirmed, that all the dead are devoured.

The inhabitants of New Holland, it is well known, are in the most deplorable state of ignorance, barbarity, and vice. In some of their ceremonies, the very form and character of man seems despised, and the superiority of brutes ackowledged.

On a former occasion, something was said of the religion of the Otaheitans. We now speak of their morals.

From the following statement, made by missionaries, sent to these savages in 1797, it appears, that the favourable impressions, at first received as to their state and character, were by no means justified by more thorough acquaintance. The state of society was soon found to be such, that, while it excited the compassion of the missionaries, it presented many discouragements. The duties of husbands and wives, of parents and children, are neither understood nor practised. They view their children as property, which every parent has a right to dispose of according to his own inclination. And the event is, that many of them are murdered, as soon as they are born. But the most horrible source of pollution and cruelty, found among them is the Arreoy Society. This is an association of individuals, descended from the principal families in the Society Islands. They are continually wandering about from one island to another, and support themselves by plundering the inhabitants. Each of these men has two or three females, whom he calls his wives. But their habit is to live in a state of promiscuous concubinage, and uniformly to murder every infant, which is the fruit of their intercourse.

Parents, when they become old, are treated with every mark of neglect. Their society is avoided as a disgrace. And, indeed, to such a height has their contempt of old age aris