ation of the bulk of the people of Hindostan, as well as of the modern Brahmins; among the latter, if we except one in a thousand, we give them over measure. The Gentoos, in general, are as degenerate, superstitious, litigious, and wicked a people as any race of people in the whole world, if not eminently more so, especially the common run of Brahmins; and we can truly aver, that during almost five years that we presided in the Judicial Cutchery Court of Calcutta, never any murder, or other atrocious crime came before us, but it was proved in the end, that a Brahmin was at the bottom of it."* Precisely to the same purpose are the concurrent testimonies of Lord Teignmouth, of Sir John Macpherson, of Sir William Jones, of Lord Cornwallis, of Sir James Mackintosh, &c. &c. Mr. Stephen, in an excellent speech in the House of Commons, in the debate I formerly mentioned, observed upon this subject, "This view of the native character was strongly confirmed by the report of a case tried before Sir James Mackintosh, at Bombay, and inserted in the Asiatic Register of 1805, where it appeared that a female witness had been detected in committing a perjury. She was asked, whether she did not deem such an offence to be extremely enormous? to which she answered, that she understood that the English so regarded it, but that it was thought nothing of in her country."† I shall only go further on this subject, by making the following extract from the Gospel its own Witness, taken from a periodical account of the Baptist Mission.-" Lying, theft, whoredom, and deceit, are sins for which • Quoted by Mr. Fuller in the Gospel its own Witness, p. 99. + Christian Observer for October, 1813, p. 625. the Hindoos are notorious. There is not one man in a thousand, who does not make lying his constant practice. Their thoughts of God are so very light, that they only consider him as a sort of plaything. Avarice and servility are so united, in almost every individual, that cheating, juggling, and lying, are esteemed no sins with them; and the best among them, though they speak ever so great a falsehood, do not consider it as an evil, unless you first charge them to speak the truth. When they defraud you ever so much, and you charge them with it, they coolly answer, It is the custom of the country.-In England the poor receive the benefit of the Gospel, in being fed and clothed by those who know not by what principles they are moved. For where the Gospel is generally acknowledged in a land, it puts some to fear, and others to shame; so that to relieve their own smart, they provide for the poor but here, O miserable state! I have found the path-way stopped up by sick and wounded people, perishing with hunger; and that in a populous neighbourhood, where numbers pass by, some singing, others talking, but none showing mercy; as though they were dying weeds, and not dying men."* If such is the state of religion and manners among the Chinese and Hindoos, who are allowed to be the two most polished of the nations that continue to profess Paganism, we cannot suppose that countries still more barbarous, will be found more rational in their worship, or more pure and humane in their rites and manners. The Japanese are said greatly to resemble the Chinese in their manner of worship, which is idolatrous, and of the most • P. 100. débasing kind. The state of manners in both countries is equally depraved. Jealousy is a striking feature in the character of both their governments, and they have succeeded in transfusing it into almost every individual of their subjects. In Japan, almost all crimes are punished with death. "It is true," says Montesquieu, “that the surprising character of this obstinate, capricious, resolute, whimsical people, who defy all dangers and calamities, seems to absolve their legislators from the imputation of cruelty, notwithstanding the severity of their laws. But are men who have a natural contempt of death, and who rip up their bellies for the least fancy,-are such men, I say, mended or deterred, or rather are they not hardened by the continual sight of punishments? "We have only to read the relation of the interview between the Emperor and the Deyro at Meaco. The number of those who were suffocated, or murdered in that city by ruffians, is incredible; young maids and boys were carried off by force, and found afterwards exposed in public places, at unseasonable hours, quite naked, and sewed in linen bags, to prevent their knowing which way they had passed; robberies were committed in all parts; the bellies of horses were ripped open, to bring their riders to the ground; and coaches were overturned, in order to strip the ladies. The Dutch, who were told they could not pass the night on the scaffold, without exposing themselves to the danger of being assassinated, came down, &c."* "Near Tonker, or Lassa, in Thibet, or Mogulean Tartary, is Mount Putala, or Patoli, on which stands the grand temple or pagoda, the residence of the Grand Lama, or Dalay Lama, the deity of the Tartars, who not only unites in his own person, the regal and sacerdotal character, but by the more remote Tartars, at least, is venerated as the Deity himself, and is called "God, the everlasting Father of Heaven.' This per son is worshipped by the Lamas, or Tartar priests, under the shape of a young man, who, they pretend, never dies, but is immortal and omnipotent. He is seated, crosslegged, on a golden throne, attended by several thousands of priests. He never speaks or moves in public, except that he sometimes waves his hand, in token of favour to a particular worshipper. When he dies, another, as like him as can be found, is put in his place. Almost all the nations of the East, except the Mohammedans, believe in the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; and the opinion of those who are reputed the most orthodox among the Thebetians, is, that when the Grand Lama seems to die, either of old age, or infirmity, his soul, in fact, only quits a crazy habitation, to look for another, younger or better; and is discovered again in the body of some child, by certain tokens, known only to the Lamas, or priests, in which order he always appears. "This religion is said to have been of three thousand years standing; and neither time, nor the influence of men has had the power of shaking the authority of the Grand Lama, whose theocracy extends as fully to temporal, as to spiritual concerns. It has been adopted in a large part of the globe, and is even now professed all over Thibet and Mongalia; is almost universal in Greater and Lesser Bucharia, and most provinces of Tartary; it has also some followers in the kingdom of Cassimere, in India; and prevails in most parts of China. The Grand Lama has a nuncio at Pekin; and the present imperial family of China, who are Tartars, follow this idolatry, which, in most respects, is not unlike that of China; for the grosser Chinese idolaters worship their chimerical god Fohi, or Fo, in much the same manner."* 66 In all the newly discovered islands in the South Sea, human sacrifices were found by our navigators, to be common; and of several of them, the inhabitants were found to be cannibals. Part of the body of our celebrated navigator, Captain Cooke, was devoured by the natives of one of these islands, where he unfortunately fell, the victim, in a great measure, of his own humanity and benevolence. Although the Dutch introduced Christianity into every island where they established a government, yet, the greater part of the Malay islands are involved in darkness. The natives are of three general casts, Pagans, Mohammedans, and Chinese. The Mohammedans chiefly inhabit the shores, and the Pagans the interior parts of the islands. The barbarism of the interior nations, in Sumatra, Borneo, and other islands, almost exceeds belief. Marsden, in his history of Sumatra, had informed us that it was usual with the natives of the interior, called the Batta tribes, to kill and eat their criminals, and prisoners of war; but the researches of Dr. Leyden have led to the discovery, that they sometimes sacrifice their own relations. 6 They, themselves, declare,' says he, that they frequently eat their own relations, when aged and infirm; and that not so much to gratify their appetites, as to perform a pious ceremony. Thus, when a man becomes infirm, and weary of the world, he is said to invite his own children to eat • Mr. Adams's Religious World Displayed, Vol 1, p. p. 139, 140, and 141. |