the rule by which they themselves are to be tried, and that authority is to be denied to them in like manner as they denied it to their opponents. It is not to the formularies of Churches, nor to the authority of the most eminent persons, that we must direct the regards of men, in respect to religious truths and religious obligations, but to the word of God: from which every one must learn the saving doctrine, and profess as he has learned from the inspirations of divine wisdom.

Art. VI. 1. The Suttee's Cry to Britain; containing Extracts from Essays published in India, and Parliamentary Papers on the Burning of Hindoo Widows: shewing that the Rite is not an integral Part of the Religion of the Hindoos, &c. By J. Peggs, late Missionary at Cuttack, Orissa. 8vo. pp. 84. Price Is. London. 1827.

2. An Account of the Proceedings at a Public Meeting held at the City of York, Jan. 19, 1827, to take into Consideration the Expediency of petitioning Parliament on the subject of the Immolation of Hindoo Widows in British India. With an Appendix. 4to. pp. 28. York. 1827.

FOUR years ago, the Abbé Dubois told us that this was a stale subject.' What must it be now? The East India Directors are perfectly tired of hearing about it. They wish that the subject were dropped. To be kept from dinner while a proprietor is making a stir about allowing the Hindoos to burn their widows, is most trying to the temper of any co-proprietor of India. Four years more have passed away, and, according to the average of the preceding returns, at least two thousand eight hundred murders have, in that period, been committed, with the connivance, and under the implied sanction, of the British Government. But what then? Are we to hurt the feelings of the amiable and virtuous Hindoos, by intolerantly interfering to prevent their doing so religious an action as burning their mothers and daughters? Are we to endanger a general insurrection throughout India by forbidding suicide? Did not the Quarterly Review, the highest authority in these matters, warn us, some time ago, against the restless spirit of a few ultra philanthropists,' whose misplaced zeal' threatened to cost us our colonies in both hemispheres, by stirring the question of suttees in the East, and that of slavery in the West ?*

Q. Rev. No. lviii. The same article held up Dubois as a model for missionaries.

The subject is too awfully serious even for irony; but indeed, we have not burlesqued the reasoning, nor have we exaggerated the cold-blooded apathy, with which the opponents of the abolition of Suttees have resisted the pleadings of humanity and the authoritative voice of religion. There is the clearest proof that can be desired, that the practice might have been put down by a word from the British Government, without the slightest danger of exciting even a murmur on the part of the natives. The Mohammedan emperors prohibited it; Albu querque gained the respect and gratitude of the natives by suppressing it; the practice of infanticide has been suppressed by the British Government without exciting the slightest disturbance; judges and magistrates resident in India have publicly declared, that the suttees might with equal ease and safety be put down by law; and yet, with the power in their hands, our rulers still hesitate to issue their fiat, or rather their veto. What do they wait for?

Till the gentlemen in Leadenhall-street have made up their minds upon this difficult question. It is one unhappy consequence of the present complicated system of direction and control, by which the destínies of 70 millions of our fellow subjects are regulated, that the moral responsibility can be reciprocally shifted and evaded, and that a pretence for delay of justice and mercy can be founded upon etiquette and delicacy. We are really so ignorant as not to know with what branch of the complex Government of India it rests to determine, that these iniquities shall cease. The late Marquis of Hastings is reported to have said, that he would at once have put down the atrocious practice, if he could have relied upon the popular feeling being in his favour in our country: adding, that the danger was felt, not in India, but only in England. And by whom in England? Not, we must believe, by our Government, but by the proprietors of East India stock, and-alas! that it should be so-by British merchants,-that class of men, the honour and the disgrace of England, individually so humane, and upright, and honourable, collectively so inaccessible to every sentiment of virtue and religion, so sordid, reckless, and cruel,-traders in human blood and sinews, the infatuated haters and opponents of every attempt to advance the eternal interests of man of the glory of God.

But this being the case, will the people of England preserve a guilty silence that shall make them parties to the crime, without the apology of being blinded by interested fears? Will they tacitly side with the Leadenhall-street people? or will they come forward to strengthen the hands of Government, and to support that sound and healthful part of the Legislature who

are warmly disposed to give effect to the wishes of the people of England on this subject, once unequivocally and efficiently expressed? We trust that the noble example set by the inhabitants of York, will be promptly followed in all parts of the kingdom; and that Mr. Buxton will be supported as he ought to be, in the motion which stands for the 18th instant, by the voice of the Christian public. Let not the blood of 700 human sacrifices a year be upon us or upon our children.

We cannot deem it necessary to add a word further upon the subject of these publications, but strongly recommend to our readers the perusal of Mr. Peggs's pamphlet, which, to the feeling testimony of an eye-witness of the horrible practice he de ́scribes, adds a mass of information and documents of the most valuable and decisive nature. As we hope that it will obtain a very general circulation, we shall not make any extract from his pages; but, from the Account of the York meeting, we cannot refrain from transcribing part of the speech of Mr. Pritchett, on account of its cogent and impressive reasoning.

'It seems, that though the Brahmins are very fond of seeing women burnt, they have a great aversion themselves to be hanged or arrested for debt, robbery, or adultery; and therefore, in the sacred books of the Hindoos, they had taken great care to describe themselves as of divine descent, and made the Hindoo laws absolutely to prohibit the execution of a brahmin: they forbid the magistrates even to imagine evil against him. Thus, fenced by the laws, and extolled by their sacred books, they are still more powerfully guarded by the respect and veneration of the people. From one corner of India to the other, however religious observances may have fallen into disuse, this sacred tribe enjoys undiminished homage. When, therefore, our government commenced in the East, we were reduced to the most serious dilemma. To have inflicted punishment on brahmins, would have been to violate the most awful sanction of Hindoo law, and the dearest prejudices of the people: to have exempted them from punishment, would have been to deliver over the country to desolation, ravage, and murder. The reign of equity, which we were about to introduce, was stopped at the very threshold; the destiny of millions hung in suspence. How did we act on this occasion? Did we lay the laws of justice at the feet of this sacred tribe? Did we abrogate our code of jurisprudence, and adopt the vedas for our guides? Did we deprive the country of our protection, because the Hindoo shastras forbid the punishment of the aggressors if they happened to be brahmins? We did not hesitate a single moment, but boldly stepped forward in vindication of the rights of society, and, in spite of a formidable phalanx of Hindoo jurisconsults, and of the strongest prejudices, caused these delinquents to pay the forfeit of their lives to the laws of offended justice. In the mode of doing this, we admitted no recognition of their pre-eminent birth. We tried them publicly like other criminals, and subjected them to the degradation of a

gibbet. We have repeated the punishment of the brahmins since that period whenever it has been requisite; and scarcely a year has since elapsed without the execution of a brahmin in some one of the provinces of our empire. Have the natives complained of this outrage on the sanctity of their priesthood, or considered it as an infringement of our toleration? Have we lost their confidence? Have they in any one instance petitioned us to disregard their welfare, and exempt their spiritual guides from death ?—or have they not, on the contrary, tacitly sanctioned every act of punishment, and applauded the inflexible tenor of our proceedings? The question, therefore, is not whether we shall for the first time infringe popular prejudice, and maintain the sovereignty of justice, but whether, having commenced this course, we shall proceed forward and liberate the country from a practice which fills it with innocent blood. Let us never for a moment admit the idea that the natives will regard it as indicating a wish to restrain the exercise of their faith by coercion. They do not so judge of us, when their spiritual guides are led forth to execution. Had this groundless anticipation arisen in their minds on the first establishment of our inflexible code, we have since so acted as fully to inspire them with confidence. We have protected them in the exercise of their religion; we have permitted hundreds of temples to rise without inquiry; we have allowed them to squander millions of rupees annually to propitiate their gods. During the whole of our administration, we have not violated one sanctuary, or mutilated one idol. Is it to be supposed, that while they continue to enjoy these, to them unprecedented, privileges, they will consider us as having abandoned the principles of toleration, when we prohibit the inhuman slaughter of defenceless women, and abrogate a practice, discountenanced by half the shastra, and condemned by the great body of the people?'

Art. VII. Sermons, Doctrinal and Practical, elucidating the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Duty of Studying Prophecy, &c. With Notes. By the Rev. John Noble Coleman, M. A. late of Queen's College, Oxford. 8vo. pp. 600. Price 12s. London. 1827.

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O ordinary pains have evidently been bestowed upon the composition of these Sermons, with a view to render the volume generally interesting. The subjects are for the most part either of primary importance or of an attractive nature; and the body of notes appended to the sermons, bear witness to the diligence and respectable attainments of the Writer. One consequence, however, of his somewhat adventurous deviation from the usual track, he must have anticipated; such a volume invites a more rigid and jealous criticism than sermons in general require or could fairly sustain. Biblical criticism, such as Mr. Coleman has profusely scattered over his volume, whether it be original or borrowed, demands to be VOL. XXVII. N.S.

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more severely tested than even the sentiments which such a volume may contain; and accordingly, while we do justice to the Author's learning or ingenuity, as well as to the piety which is still more conspicuous, we shall have occasion to dispute his judgement as an expositor, and even to deprecate some of his representations.

Sermon the eighth, on the duty of studying the Apocalypse, more particularly attracted our attention; and we regretted to perceive that he had transcribed in the notes, with marks of high approbation, some of those exceptionable passages in Mr. Irving's work, on which we felt it our duty to animadvert with some severity. Infected by the spirit of his model, Mr. Coleman declaims against the religionists of the day, as content to be nearly as ignorant of the divinely inspired prophecies of the Apocalypse, as they are of the books of the Sibyls or the Cassandra of Lycophron.'Not content with their own 'sinful neglect of a commanded duty,' he adds, they assail with unhallowed sarcasm the writings of those who have ⚫ elucidated this sacred science, and have recommended and 'facilitated its acquirement to others.' Who those writers are, our readers may feel curious to know. It is a singular circumstance, that Mr. Irving and the Author of "Palingenesia," are the only authors specifically cited as prophetical authorities; but at p. 232, we meet with the following recommendation of three other authors.

Furthermore, to understand the Apocalypse, we must avail ourselves of the discoveries of those who have preceded us in this sacred study. So many valuable dissertations on prophecy have been published in this country, that no man can plead the want of literary assistance as an excuse for neglecting this interesting study; and I consider the injunction of our text to be obligatory upon every individual who has money to purchase, and time to read, the familiar expositions of prophecy written by Bishop Newton, Faber, and Gauntfett.'

The injunction of the text is, "Blessed is he that keepeth "the sayings of the prophecy of this book ;" and we concede to Mr. Coleman, that, in order to keep those sayings, we must understand them. But to extend the divine declaration to the duty of buying any human expositions, must surely appear to the Writer's better judgement, a very unauthorized and presumptuous wresting of Scripture. Blessed is he that buys and reads the interminable dissertations of Mr. Faber: says Mr. Coleman. We have quite as much right, and better reason, to say: let every sober-minded Christian keep his money in his pocket. A more unsafe, rash, and fanciful com