the means employed to prevent infanticide have been far less, if at all, successful. All that is known is that the Rajpoots in general have no female children in their families.

HUMAN SACRIFICES. There are unfortunately among the Hindoo idols two, the Goddess Khalee and the God Devi, who claim to be propitiated by human victims. Upon the discovery of one of these sacrifices in 1805 the subject underwent considerable discussion, and it was ascertained that the sacrifices had the sanction of the vedas; the mode of the sacrifice being described in a chapter on human sacrifices in the Puranas, in which all the qualifications, and particularly the age of the victim, are expressly prescribed. It was at the same time ascertained that a more modern treatise on Hindoo law, called the "Cali, or Present Age," forbad it, and under all the circumstances the Government resolved to deal with it as an act of murder, consent on the part of the victim having no place in the transaction. In conformity with this decision Ram Dyal, a native of Bengal, was sentenced to death in 1805 for offering up a boy of twelve years of age to Khalee. Instances have nevertheless occurred since that date of Hindoos attempting to make, and even of their making, this sacrifice; for which, in some cases, a punishment less than death has been awarded. In consideration of the superstition which prompts the act the punishment awarded for it in the year 1828 was seven years' confinement. In the Nagpore territory it has been prohibited by the authority of the Government, at the instance, it is believed, of Mr. Jenkins, who was then the East India Company's Resident at the Court of the Nagpore Rajah, and is now a member of the Court of Directors.

SUICIDES. Among the aborigines of eastern nations, suicide appears never to have been regarded as a crime, but as a virtue. Throughout the empire of Japan the worship of the god Zaca is attended with acts of suicide, which are performed in the most public manner; the votaries of that idol usually announcing their intention long previously to the fact, and fulfilling it with more ostentation and display than used to attend a Suttee in India. In the latter country the Hindoos appear always to have considered themselves

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as possessing a power over their own lives, for the exercise of which they were not accountable to their fellow creatures while the great veneration in which they hold the waters of the Ganges, and the superstitions connected with that sacred river, have suggested to them a mode of quitting life, when they have become weary of it, at once speedy, easy, and, according to their notions, blissful in its consequences beyond all calculation. Hence has arisen among the Hindoos the custom sanctioned by their religion, of lepers and other diseased persons, when they have become weary of life, requesting that they might be borne down to the margin of the Ganges, and there be left to the tide, certain ceremonies having previously been performed over them. In other instances the suicide is performed by the victims causing themselves to be carried into boats, in which they are rowed into the middle of the river, and there falling or being thrown overboard, are drowned. Others cause themselves to be buried or burned alive. Although accession to these acts of suicide was forbidden by regulation as far back as the year 1799 (No. 8, Sec. 3), instances of that accession are continually occurring in India, and as the parties when arraigned for their conduct, uniformly acknowledge the fact, pleading that they are justified in it " by the tenets of their religion," the Company's government has in general judged it prudent to treat the offenders with considerable leniency on that account.

SUTTEES. Respecting this species of suicide, some controversy has taken place, which it is not my present intention to review. At a very early period after the establishment of the East India Company's power in India, it became an object of desire with their servants to discourage, and if possible to prevent this sacrifice; and in 1805 Mr. Elphinstone, the acting magistrate in Behar, following the examples of Mr. Brooke in 1789, and Mr. Rattray in 1797, prevented the immolation of a widow of very tender age. The enquiries respecting the sanction which the sacrifice derived from the dogmas of the Hindoo superstition, which immediately afterwards took place, resulted in a report from the Nizamut Adawlut, or chief criminal court, that the " practice of widows

burning themselves with the bodies of their deceased husbands, is founded on the religious notions of the Hindoos, and is expressly stated with approbation in their law." Among the texts quoted from the Shasters in support of the practice, were the following, which were considered to be very influential on the minds of Hindoo females, by whom they were received and believed-"There are three millions and a half of hairs upon the human body, and every woman who burns herself with the body of her husband, will reside with him in heaven during a like number of years;" and "in the same manner as a snake-catcher drags a snake from his hole, so does a woman who burns herself draw her husband out of hell, and she afterwards resides with him in heaven." There were some cases, however, in which even the Hindoo law declared the practice illegal, and with the whole evidence before them, the Government resolved, in the first instance, by a circular order to the magistrates, to prohibit the practice in those cases only, and obtain further information. The propriety of this proceeding has been questioned by some and vindicated by others. It certainly had the effect of bringing the practice of Suttee more immediately under the cognizance, while, as some think, it gave it the implied sanction of the ruling power. By making the Government acquainted with its extent, it most probably paved the way for its authoritative prohibition in December, 1829 a step which the GovernorGeneral in Council did not feel himself, then, at liberty to take, till he had ascertained with great care the extent to which it was likely to excite popular commotion. No such commotion is reported to have taken place; but, if the Calcutta Gazette of the 27th of June, 1831, is to be credited, the only native gentleman of rank who ventured to congratulate the Governor-General on the prohibition of Suttee, suffered severe persecution from the other natives of his own rank in Calcutta, in consequence of his having so done; and a society was immediately formed there for the protection of the rights of the Hindoo Church. With advertence to these facts, it may be too hasty an assumption to suppose that the practice of Suttee has been altogether discontinued in India-a country where the

widow is required to burn with her husband's corpse, and where the dead are always burned before sunset. On the contrary the official returns of former years justify the belief, that in many parts of India the practice may still continue to a considerable extent, in the absence and without the knowledge of the police officers, and in some cases by their connivance.

BRAMINS.-Their sacred character and personal inviolability. The case. of Raja Mahá Nundcomar, a Bramin of high caste, who was hanged in Calcutta for a forgery on the Government, committed in the time of Governor-General Hastings, has been long before the public, with the angry controversy and various opinions to which that event gave rise. It may be sufficient here to observe, that that act of authority has not been considered by the servants of the East India Company as forming a precedent: on the contrary, for nearly 40 years subsequent to that event, the Bengal Government, adhering to the rule of prudent caution and respect for popular prejudice, upon which their power rested, abstained, even within the Bengal provinces, and in cases of very great atrocity, from taking the life of a Bramin; while in the district of Benares, the lives of Bramins were secured in all imaginable cases by a regulation of the Government, passed in the year 1795. Many instances have occurred of Bramins having escaped the penalty of death under this latter regulation, which was in force till about the year 1817; when it was judged proper so far to repeal it as to let the general law in cases of murder take its course against natives of all castes, including the Bramin.

THE BULL and Cow. The sacred character which the Hindoos attach to these animals, and the veneration with which they regard them, is another peculiarity in their religion which has imposed upon the Company's government the necessity of great caution. Such attention has been given to this prejudice by the native Hindoo princes, that some of them have stipulated by treaty that no persons who might be allowed to reside in their territories should attempt to slaughter oxen. According to the Hindoo law, the punishment for stealing one of these animals is the amputation of one hand and one

foot; and the same law imposes a very large fine upon any person who shall exact labour from a bullock when he is hungry, or thirsty, or fatigued, or oblige him to labour out of season. To these animals temples have been consecrated, and large districts in India are held sacred for their exclugive use. There have also been instances, one in particular, in which a Hindoo of rank offered to suffer any punishment which the Government would inflict on him, for having forcibly possessed himself of a cow, the property of a Mahomedan, whereby he had saved the life of the animal. Offensive as these facts must be to every Christian feeling, it will not excite surprise that a few years since the Government of Bengal censured one of the Company's junior servants severely for amusing himself with a bull-bait, whereby great confusion and turmoil had been excited among the Hindoo inhabitants of Calcutta; nor will it create much astonishment that the Mahomedans, who eat the flesh of oxen, and the Hindoos, who venerate those animals, should have had some severe and sanguinary conflicts on that account: on which occasions the Company's authority has been exerted to preserve the peace.

It is not many years since the town of Mobaruckpore was burnt down by the Hindoos, in order to avenge the slaughter of a cow by the Mahomedans.

DHURNA, or the practice followed by one caste of peculiar sanctity, of hiring out their persons to sit at the doors of real or pretended debtors, with a threat that they will starve themselves to death unless the demands of the pretending creditors are complied with, is another of those peculiarities in the frame of Hindoo society towards which the East India Company have found it necessary to manifest great tenderness in the administration of the government. Although sitting dhurna is illegal, instances of it have not yet been visited with very severe legal castigation.

WITCHCRAFT. In their belief in witchcraft, the natives of India are at this time in precisely that state in which the natives of this now enlightened country were not quite two centuries since, when King James sent Hopkins the witchfinder to hunt down witches in the north; and one of the Company's agents gravely advised the Court of Directors of the measures

which he had adopted in order to put down witches and wizards. From this faith in necromancy and sorcery, have arisen in India breaches of the peace, and even murders, which the judicial authorities there have been required to notice and to punish. The administration of the law, however, even when murder has ensued, has usually been mitigated with reference to the dominant superstition, and, in all cases, a large discretion has been exercised, under a persuasion that severity would but have inspired fanaticism.

SLAVERY and SLAVE TRAFFIC.-In the East Indies the word slavery describes relations very different from those which the same word designates in the West. In general, in the East, it excludes the ideas of purchase, of oppressive toil, and of severe and arbitrary punishments. To this description of slavery in India there are, however, some local exceptions. Among the Hindoos those of the Bramin castes are understood to regard all the lower or degraded castes as slaves, and often require and receive from them unremunerated service from religious motives; and the Mahomedans perpetuate domestic bondage, claiming the rights of a master over slaves among their children and servants: but these claims, without having been abolished, have been modified by the administration of those general principles of justice which are recognized in the Company's regulations. All persons, of all castes, have free access to the European magistrates, to complain of ill usage, and the evidence of all is admissible, quantum valeat. In addition to these privileges, the more oppressive circumstances of slavery have been expressly interdicted by the Company's regulations; together with slave traffic, which the French, the Dutch, and the Danes successively endeavoured to establish in India, where it was prohibited by proclamation long before the passing of the Slave Trade Felony Act in England, in the year 1811. That Act was nevertheless published in India, as a general law of the empire.

I regret, Mr. Urban, that the limit which you have assigned to this communication compels me here to terminate it; with the intention of resuming and concluding the subject in your next monthly publication.

THOMAS FISHER.

NEW CHURCHES.-No. XXXVI. St. James's Chapel, Croydon Common.

Architect, WALlace.

THIS Chapel is built with a fine white brick with stone dressings, in the Pointed style. The mode which prevailed in the reign of the First Edward, seems to have been the object of the architect's imitation.

The plan shews a nave or body in form of a parallelogram, without side ailes. A chancel flanked by vestries projects from one extremity, and at the other is a tower and lobbies formed within the plan.

The elevation of the west front is made in breadth into three divisions by buttresses, giving the appearance of a nave and side ailes; the central division is nearly occupied by the tower; in the side divisions are lofty windows of two lights, made by a single mullion, with a quatrefoil in the head of the arch; above this is a raking cornice, decorated with grotesque masks and a parapet; and at the angles of the design are duplicated buttresses ending in a square shaft, capped with an acute pedimental finish to each face, forming an obtuse and far from an elegant pinnacle.

The tower commences with a Pointed arched entrance, with richly-moulded architrave, the moulding springing from two columns attached to each jamb; a pedimental cornice, sustained on bustos of a king and queen, and ending in a finial, crowns the arch.

The breadth of the tower is bounded by buttresses in three heights, and the elevation is made into the like number of stories; the second story contains a window of two lights, with Tudor sweeps in the head of the mullions, and a circle enclosing eight sweeps in the arch; the whole bounded by a weather-cornice springing from bustos. Above this window is a blank space, apparently intended for a dial; it is covered with a lofty pedimental cornice, springing from two niches, and finished with a cross. The third story of the tower is clear of the main building, and has a lancet window of three lights in each face, the heads acute, and the piers capped with foliage; the whole being in an earlier style than the parts described. The architect has rather singularly introduced the Norman zigzag moulding into the deGENT. MAG. July, 1833.

corations of this portion, in lieu of the toothed ornament-the peculiar decoration of works of the thirteenth century. It is applied to the architraves as well as to a string on which the windows are founded. Above the windows is a cornice with a huge grotesque head in the centre, and over this a parapet pierced with trefoils, formed in triangular divisions. At the angles are pinnacles, consisting of square shafts capped with angular heads and crowned with finials, which have a heavy appearance. The buttresses at each side of the tower, which form the divisions of the front, rise above the body of the church, and end in pinnacles, as before they are united to the tower by flying arches.

The flanks of the church are uniform. A portion at the western extremity, equal to the breadth of the tower, is divided from the rest by a buttress; it contains a pointed entrance, with a window above it. The residue of the design contains six Pointed windows rising from a string. These windows are acutely pointed, and the jambs and arches are all worked in brick. The elevation is finished by a cornice, with carved blocks and a parapet above it; and at the angles are duplicated buttresses, with terminations as before.

The east end of the church is principally occupied by the chancel and two lobbies; it finishes with a cornice and gable, on the apex of which is a cross, and in the tympanum three lancet lights.

The vestry has a triple lancet window rising from a string course, the piers and arches worked in brick; the finish as before. On each side the design is bounded by buttresses; in the flanks are entrances.

The general features of the style, are, with the exceptions detailed, better preserved in the west front than the other parts. The windows in the flanks being unoccupied by tracery, are too wide and lofty for any period of the Pointed architecture.

THE INTERIOR,

as indicated by the description of the outside, consists only ofa nave and chancel, without side ailes to either. The ceiling of the nave is nearly horizontal, rising to a low ridge in the centre. It is divided in length into compartments correspondent with the windows, by trusses springing from rich corbels,

attached to the piers with pierced and enriched spandrils; the ceiling rests on a cornice, above which is a range of trefoils on points painted in distemper; at the west end, and in each side the church are galleries, the fronts of which are ornamented with trefoils in the same style as the ceiling. The supports of the gallery are square with trefoil heads. The chancel is separated from the nave by a bold arch, and is ceiled in imitation of stone, and ribbed. The altar screen, which occupies the dado of the east window, is made into three divisions by piers ending in pinnacles, and finished by a cornice; the intervals contain the customary inscriptions.

The pulpit and desks are situated at a short distance from the piers of the chancel. The former is octagon, raised on a support of the same form; the design is pleasing.

The font is of marble, and originally belonged to the parish church, where we recollect seeing it at the time when the old font was lying useless in the tower. Some years since, the parish had the good taste to restore the ancient one to its proper situation, and the modern substitute, in consequence, was disused until it was presented to the chapel. It is handsomely moulded, and formed of a beautiful piece of marble.

Viewed as a whole, this chapel is rather a pleasing specimen of architecture; the interior is elegant, and very tastefully fitted up. The estimate being but low, the architect perhaps could not have done more than he has.

A considerable portion of the floor of the chapel, is occupied by seats belonging to the East India College in the neighbourhood.

This chapel was commenced on the 16th of May 1827; it is calculated to accommodate 800 persons in free seats, and 400 in pews, making a total of 1200. A grant was made by the Commissioners for building New Churches, of 3500l. towards its erection. E. I. C.

Mr. URBAN,

ONE of the greatest men who flourished in this country during the

reigns of the Tudor family, was Henry, the last of the Fitz-Alans, Earls of Arundel. He has deservedly been included in the publication of "Illustrious Portraits," which, to the credit of the present age, has received so large a portion of approbation and encouragement; and Mr. Lodge has there introduced his memoir with the following observations :

"The first attempt is now made to bring into one view the dispersed relics of this very eminent person's story. In searching for them, regret has been extions that innumerable circumstances of cited at every step by evident presumpthat story have been lost in utter oblivion. In the life of a man of exalted rank, not less distinguished by the vigour of his talents, than by his honesty and high spirit; continually in the service of the Crown, under two Monarchs, the character of whose minds and tempers, and the policy of whose governments, were dissimilar, even to opposition; devoted with the most faithful and unbending resolution to a religion which he saw alternately professed and abjured by his compeers; cherished and proscribed by those Princes, what interesting facts must have occurred? what dangers must he not have encountered, what difficulties must he not have surmounted? These curiosities, however, have been sacrificed to the dulness or the timidity of the historians of the seventeenth century, and little remains of him but an outline which it is now too late to endeavour to fill up."

It is singular that these sensible observations, which are in some degree applicable to most of the historical characters of the same, if not of later periods, should have been made by the Biographer in an instance, where what is deficient in the public historians may be supplied from a private, though unknown, memorialist. Mr. Lodge, and to any one of his readers who has entered into his feelings, it may now with some reason be said, quod petis, hic est.

To

Among the Royal MSS. in the British Museum (17 A. Ix.) has been preserved a Life of this Earl of Arundel, evidently written by one of his most intimate servants, probably a chaplain. It had been noticed, and some extracts taken from it, in Mr. Dallaway's History of the Rape of Arundel, a work