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than once succeeded in bribing the subordinate repre-
sentatives of authority to give permission to commit the
deed in violation of the laws of humanity and common
sense.
The great European Power which nowadays exercises its
sway all over the country has tried, by all possible means
of persuasion, to put an end altogether to this barbarous
custom but its efforts have been only partially successful,
;
and, generally speaking, it has been obliged to shut its
eyes to this dreadful practice, since any attempt to remedy
it by force would have exposed it to dangerous opposi-
tion.
Nobody
a greater admirer than myself of the wise
animates this enlightened and liberal Govern-
ment in manifesting to its Hindu subjects such a full and
is
spirit that
perfect tolerance in the practice of their civil
and
religious
and nobody is more fully alive than I am to the
usages
dangers and difficulties that an open defiance of these pre-
judices, which are looked upon as sacred and inviolable,
would give rise to. But does the abominable custom in
question form part of Hindu institutions ? Are there any
rules which prescribe its observance by certain castes ? All
the information which I have been able to gather on the
subject tends to make me believe that there are no such
The infamous practice, although encouraged by the
rules.
impostors who regulate religious worship, is nowhere pre-
It
scribed in an imperative manner in the Hindu books.
is left entirely to the free will and pleasure of the victims
who thus sacrifice themselves. No blame and no discredit
are attached nowadays to the wife whose own honest
judgement suggests that she ought not to be in such a
hurry to rejoin in the other world the husband who so often
made her wretched in this. It would be quite possible,
therefore, by the display of firmness, combined with pru-
dence, to strike, without any considerable danger, at the
very root of this shocking practice. Certainly it reflects
discredit on the Government which tolerates it and mani-
fests no great indignation
with regard to it.
;
!
During recent years, owing to the number of these abominable
sacrifices being on the increase, especially in the Bengal Presidency
and in the districts bordering on the Ganges, the Government has
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