civil officer, supported by a military force, is appointed to collect the Tax. Other temples in Hindoostan have long been considered as a legitimate source of a similar revenue! The temple of Juggernaut is now under our own immediate management and controul. The law enacted for this purpose is entitled "A "Regulation for levying a tax from Pilgrims resorting to the Temple of Juggernaut, and "for the superintendence and management "of the Temple ;" passed by the Bengal Government, 3d April, 1806.-It will give me sincere pleasure, if the further investigation of this subject shall tend, in any degree, to soften the painful impression which the above state. ment must make on the public mind.§ 1942. གས There is another enormity of Hindoo superstition, which is well known to you, and which I need not describe; I mean the immolution of female victims on the funeral pile." I shall only observe, that the number of these unfortunate persons who thus perish annually in dur own territories is so great, that it would appear incredible to those who have not' inquired into the fact. † The scene is indeed remote ; but these are our own subjects, and we have it in our power to redress the evil. There is a time appointed by the Divine pro See Christian Researches. + Idem. vidence (according to the Prophetic record) to every nation, for its melioration and felicity. Such a time came to our nation, when the light of Christianity visited it, for our altars were once polluted by bufhan sacrifices. The same happiness, we would hope, is now come for India. If it should be said that the sacri fice of women cannot be abolished, it will be sufficient answer to states that when the Mad homedans were in power, they did abolish t in parts and the Brahmins themselves shavėt suggested means to us by which, in the course of time, it may be entirely abolished. But thel proper answer for the present is to ask another questionin Has the subjectiever been officially enquired into din yort tedt en sus ai grigmA For many years this nation was reproached for tolerating the Slave Trade. Many books were written on the subject and the atten tion of othe Legislature was at length directed to ital Somel asserted that the abolition of it was impracticable, and some that it was impolitic; but it was found on an investigation of the traffic, that it was defended because it was tu crative: and a humane nation abolished it, But let us ask, What is there in buying and selling men compared to our permitting thousands of women, our own subjects, to be every year BURNED ALIVE, without enquiring into the cause, and without evidence of the necessity? " Or what DANED Compared to the disgrace of regialating by Christian law the bloody and obs scene sites of Juggernaut sm & dou e: The honour of our nation is certainly involvil ed in this matter. But there is no room for thedanguage of criminationvorareproach ; for it is the fin of ignorance These facts are not generally knownloAnd they are not known, because there has been no official inquiry. Could the great Council of the nation witness the darkness which I have seen, there would be no dissentient voice as to the duty of giving. lighted bedeiloda platio ac ysm 19mit to 19It is propert Ei should add, injusticestoothat honourable body of men who administer our Empire in the East, that they are not fully ins formed as to these facts. * rasy yasm 701 >>But there is a two-fold darkness in the East which it is proper to specify. There is ther darkness of Paganism; and there is the dark ness of the ROMISH Superstition in Pagan lands. Christianity, under almost any modification, adj ĵo unitesitzovni ne no bavol me or di In regard to the Idol-Tax, the principles of the enormity, it is said, has never been fully explained to the Government Hi benenece at home. It was admitted by the Indian Government many years ago without reference, I believe in the first instance, to England and possibly the reference may now appear in the books under some specious or general name, which is not well understood. The Honourable the Court of Directors will feel as indignant, on a full developement of the fact, as any public body in the nation shodłów bus is certainly a benefit to mankind; for it pres vents the perpetration of the bloody rites of Idolatry. But the corrupted Christianity to which we allude has established its Inquisition in the East, and has itself shed blood. About! the time when the Protestant Bishops suffered dt in our own country, the Bishops of the ancient q Syrian Church became martyrs to the same 3 faith in India. From that time to this, the mournful bell of the Inquisition has been heard in the mountains of Hindoostan. The inquisi1? tions in Europe have gradually lost their power by the increase of civilization; but this cause has not operated equally in India, which is yet, in many parts, in a state of barbarism. Though the political power of the Romish Church has declined, its ecclesiastical power remains in India, and will probably endure for a long period to come. The Inquisition at Goa is still in operation, and has captives in its dungeon.t A Protestant Establishment is wanted in our Empire in the East, not only to Do HONOUR to * Since the delivery of this Discourse I have with pleasure observed, in the recent Treaty between his Majesty and the Prince Regent of Portugal, an article, by which that Prince engages that the Inquisition shall not hereafter be established in his South American dominions. Does not this afford a reasonable hope that we may ere long behold that engine of Superstition abolished in Portugal ? See Christian Researches. Christianity (for in many places in Hindoostan the natives ask whether we have a God, and whether we worship in a Temple), but to counteract the influence of the ecclesiastical power of ROME: for in some provinces of Asia, that power is too strong for the religion of Protestants, and for the unprotected and defenceless missionaries.* most *The Linfluence of the Romish Church in India is far greater than is generally imagined; or than our Government has hitherto had any means of ascertaining. Though the political power is almost extinct, the religious remains in its former vigour. And on this fact is founded a strong argument for the policy of promoting the Christian Instruction of our native subjects. Although the Portuguese, for instance, possess but little territory in continental India, yet their t "hold on the native affections is incalculably stronger than "that of Britain, though in the zenith of her political power; " and were that power to be annihilated, as that of the Por"tuguese now is, it would be scarcely known, in respect of any hold which Britain has on the native mind, that she "had ever set foot in India." 46 "This impolicy astonishes those who have acted with "success on the opposite system. A Roman Catholic, high "in spiritual authority in India, expressed his utter amaze66 ment that the British Government should not act on a bet--"ter policy: and declared that, in consequence of the hold "which Christianity had obtained through the Roman Church on the minds of the natives, there were SEVEN MILLIONS of British subjects in India, with whose sentiments he had "the means of becoming perfectly acquainted, and over whose ni "minds he could exercise a commanding controul.". squam 66 See Tenth Annual Report of " Society for Missions to Af |