name of the people of India, which the immense majority never gave them the slightest authority to use, commence the work of extermination? We have already given the reasons which influenced the Mogul Court, the Nana Sahib, the Mohammedans, and the Fakirs. But there were other reasons which account for the Brahminical interest in the matter, as well as that of the Thugs and the lawless classes, which have not yet been presented, and a knowledge of which is essential to a full and complete view of the motives which originated the fearful combination against Christianity, and the English power which protected it.
Slowly, but surely, the better portion of the British administrators were urging on reforms and legislation in the interests of humanity. They had much to contend with in their noble aims between, on the one hand, the old civilians of the Company, who were still in the higher posts of the service, and on the other, from the men whose power and emoluments were derived from usages and institutions which they were striking down one by one. The abolition of female infanticide was allowed to pass with little resistance, because it brought no profit to priest or Fakir. But it was different with the far greater crime of deliberately roasting alive the beautiful and wealthy ladies of the land who had the misfortune to become widows, for there the ceremonies were splendid, the Brahmin exercised the height of awful power, and his perquisites were larger than in any other ceremony of his faith.
This extraordinary and (save in India) unparalleled crime, reduced to a system, sanctioned by their religion, and practiced for ages, is so wonderful in itself and its circumstances that the Western reader will desire to be more fully informed of its character, and the motives under which it was inflicted and endured, than he could be by a mere passing allusion, so we pause here to illustrate and describe it.
The suttee commemorated in this steel engraving took place in the neighborhood of Baroda, in the dominions of the Guicowar, during the period that Sir James Carnac was English Resident (Embassador) at that Court. The sketch was made and the whole
