A great cathedral at present implies a neighbouring, and usually a considerable city. Stonehenge was the metropolitan church of Druidism; yet there are no traces of a capital about it. Still its environs must at one time have been extremely populous.

The Druids and inferior ministers of worship, with their several households, of whose dwellings all vestiges have disappeared, must alone have formed a large establishment; and the more permanent memorials of the dead on the adjoining downs prove the population of the neighbourhood, though scattered, to have been considerable. But when it is remembered that so laborious a memorial as the barrow could only have covered the remains of the opulent, and consequently of the few, the numbers of the British Belge, who were once scattered over these downs, must be allowed to be very great. Of these barrows, within a circuit of little more than two miles around Stonehenge, our author has counted 177, and might have counted many more. In fact, the whole surface of the ground is studded with them. Of these the most conspicuous have been explored by him, and never without success. Still, however, a murmur of expiring superstition is sometimes heard against the impiety of disturbing the ashes of the dead. But surely when the body has long since been resolved into its parent dust; when all memory and tradition of the individual have ceased; when not a survivor exists, we do not say of the family, but of the nation and language to which he belonged; and when, above all, the investigation is sure to bring to light many buried remnants of ancient arts and manners, we may be allowed to pronounce the pursuit as commendable as it is interesting. Though gold has sometimes rewarded his research, curiosity is a very different principle from avarice; and we are convinced that the liberal investigator of the Wiltshire barrows will never receive a similar rebuke to that which appalled an ancient τυμβωρυχος—ΕΙ ΜΗ ΑΠΛΗΣΤΟΣ ΤΕ ΕΑΣ ΧΡΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΙΣΧΡΟΚΕΡΔΗΣ, ΟΥΚ ΑΝ ΝΕΚΡΩΝ ΘΗΚΑΣ ΑΝΕΩΓΕΣ.

ART. VIII.-Christian Researches in Asia. By the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D. D. late Vice Provost of the College of Fort William, in Bengal, Svo. pp. 272. Cambridge, Deighton; London, Cadell and Davis. 1811.

N diffusing civilization and Christianity through the world, as a secondary agent in the divine counsels, no kingdom is more responsible than our own. The activity of her full population has carried the arts which minister to human comfort to unexampled

*Herod. Clio. 187.

1

perfection; the transmission of the produce of these arts has gradually given her access to the remotest and rudest countries of the world; and the wealth resulting from such commercial influence has rendered her power commensurate with her opportunities. Nor has England been deaf to the call of duty. We are incidentally informed in a sermon prefixed to the volume before us, that there are at this time upwards of thirty different places where missionaries are engaged in introducing the most valuable temporal and spiritual blessings.' We say temporal as well as spiritual; for increasing civilization has hitherto been the instrument appointed for spreading Christianity; and experience has proved that the gospel cannot take root without ameliorating and enriching the soil in which it flourishes. It appears too, from other sources of information, that there are no less than forty-three languages in which the scriptures are at this time promulgated. These and other proofs of the religious spirit of the present age have produced so strong an impression upon the mind of Dr. Buchanan, that he considers it as an æra in the diffusion of light worthy of comparison with that of the Reformation. The vital spirit,' he says,' of our religion has revived, and is producing the fruits of the first century. Christianity has assumed its true character, as the light of the world. The holy scriptures are multiplying without number. Translations are preparing in almost all languages; and preachers are going forth into almost every region, to make the ways of God known upon earth, his saving health among all

nations.'

The widest and grandest theatre of our exertions in this honourable cause, is opened to us, without doubt, in our eastern empire: and to this object the public attention has been actively directed during the last ten years, chiefly through the laudable exertions of Dr. Buchanan, who by contributing his own personal information to the discussion which he invited, has given the subject the most reasonable chance of success, from the collision of various opinions and various minds. The Researches' now published bring to the general fund so much that is new, and so much that is interesting, that we shall be unpardonable in saying more than is necessary in order to place in one point of view, the principal reasons which made it a duty in us to introduce Christianity among our Hindoo subjects; the chief difficulties which oppose that design; and the peculiar advantages which seem to offer at the present period a more auspicious prospect than before. On the first and last of these points little more will be necessary, than to concentrate the information to be obtained from Dr. Buchanan's 'Researches and Notices.'

VOL. VI. NO. XII.

58

As to the promulgation of Christianity in India, a sufficient inducement is to be found in the moral and religious degradation of the Hindoos. Their religion is, to a greater degree than any other, pervaded by the error of all pagan systems, that of substituting ceremonious rites and observances for moral obedience. The delusion in which Europeans were for a long time held by the apparent simplicity of the Hindoo dress and mode of living, has yielded to a more intimate and impartial acquaintance with that people; and lies buried in the same grave with the murdered Rajahs and starved natives,' which were once so frequently introduced to point a moral and adorn a tale.' It is now pretty generally understood, that so far from furnishing an exemplification of the golden age, their simplicity results from cunning, their peaceableness from cowardice; and that their leading characteristics are selfishness, pride, and superstition, fraud, bypocrisy, and revenge.

What now are the rites which supersede morality, with this people? Upon this subject the author's journal, ' warm from the heart,' speaks volumes.

“Buddruck in Orissa, May 30th, 1806. "We know that we are approaching Juggernaut (and yet we are more than fifty miles from it) by the human bones which we have seen for some days strewed by the way. At this place we have been joined by several large bodies of pilgrims, perhaps 2000 in number, who have come from various parts of Northern India. Some of them, with whom I have conversed, say that they have been two months on their march, travelling slowly in the hottest season of the year, with their wives and children. Some old persons are among them who wish to die at Juggernaut. Numbers of pilgrims die on the road; and their bodies generally remain unburied. On a plain by the river, near the pilgrim's Caravansera at this place, there are more than a hundred skulls. The dogs, jackals, and vultures, seem to live here on human prey. The vultures exhibit a shocking tameness. The obscene animals will not leave the body sometimes till we come close to them. This Buddruck is a horrid place. Wherever I turn my eyes, I meet death in some shape or other. Surely Juggernaut cannot be worse than Buddruck."

p. 130.

"Juggernaut, 18th of June. "I have returned home from witnessing a scene which I shall never forget. At twelve o'clock of this day, being the great day of the feast, the Moloch of Hindoestan was brought out of his temple amidst the acclamations of hundreds of thousands of his worshippers. When the idol was placed on his throne, a shout was raised, by the multitude, such as I had never heard before. It continued equable for a few minutes, and then gradually died away.".

"The throne of the idol was placed on a stupendous car or tower about sixty feet in heignt, resting on wheels which indented the ground deeply, as they turned slowly under the ponderous machine. Attached to it were six cables, of the size and length of a ship's cable, by which

the people drew it along. Upon the tower were the priests and satellites of the idol, surrounding his throne. The idol is a block of wood, having a frightful visage painted black, with a distended mouth of a bloody colour. His arms are of gold, and he is dressed in gorgeous apparel. The other two idols are of a white and yellow colour.-Five elephants preceded the three towers, bearing towering flags, dressed in crimson caparisons, and having bells hanging to their caparisons, which sounded musically as they moved."

"After the tower had proceeded some way, a pilgrim announced that he was ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the idol. He laid himself down in the road before the tower as it was moving along, lying on his face, with his arms stretched forwards. The multitude passed round him, leaving the space clear, and he was crushed to death by the wheels of the tower. A shout of joy was raised to the God. He is said to smile when the libation of the blood is made. The people threw cowries, or small money, on the body of the victim, in approbation of the deed. He was left to view a considerable time, and was then carried by the Hurries to the Golgotha, where I have just been viewing his remains. How much I wished that the Proprietors of India Stock could have attended the wheels of Juggernaut, and seen this peculiar source of their revenue." pp. 136-139.

"Juggernaut, 21st June.

"The idolatrous processions continue for some days longer, but my spirits are so exhausted by the constant view of these enormities, that I mean to hasten away from this place sooner than I at first intended.-I beheld another distressing scene this morning at the Place of Skulls;a poor woman lying dead, or nearly dead, and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which were near. The people passed by without noticing the children. I asked them where was their home. They said, they had no home but where their mother was.'-O, there is no pity at Juggernaut ! no mercy, no tenderness of heart in Moloch's kingdom! Those who support his kingdom, err, I trust, from ignorance. "They know not what they do.'" p. 141,

The rites of Juggernaut are by no means confined to the temple in Orissa. Even close to Ishera, a beautiful villa on the river's side, about eight miles from Calcutta, once the residence of Governor Hastings, and within view of the present Governor General's country house, there is a temple of this idol which is often stained with human blood.' Dr. Buchanan visited this place at the festival of the Rutt Juttra in May, 1807, and witnessed a similar scene to that which has been just described. The worshippers were computed at a hundred thousand.

The sacrifice of females at the tomb of their husbands forms another of the tragedies acted at the instigation, and under the superintendance, of the Brahmins. But with this subject the public are now become so well acquainted, that it is only necessary to say that, 'by an account taken in 1803, the number of women sacrificed

during that year within 30 miles of Calcutta, was two hundred and seventy-five.'

When the refreshing contrast which Christianity displays to these sanguinary horrors, has been extracted from the same journal, it will be superfluous to enforce by argument the reasons for introducing the gospel. The native Christians of Tanjore till the light of Revelation was brought to them by Ziegenbalg in 1707, worshipped an idol also, called the great black bull of Tanjore.' Here, says Dr. Buchanan, Sept. 2, 1806,

“As I returned from the Church, I saw the Christian families going back in crowds to the country, and the boys looking at their ollas. What a contrast, thought I, is this to the scene at Juggernaut! Here there is becoming dress, humane affections, and rational discourse. I see here no skulls, no self-torture, no self-murder, no dogs and vultures tearing human flesh! Here the Christian virtues are found in exercise by the feeble-minded Hindoo, in a vigour and purity which will surprise those who have never known the native character but under the greatest disadvantages, as in Bengal. It certainly surprised myself; and when I reflected on the moral conduct, upright dealing, and decorous manners of the native Christians of Tanjore, I found in my breast a new evidence of the peculiar excellence and benign influence of the Christian Faith."" p. 169.

In the same district are extensive forests, inhabited till lately by predatory hands. The exertions of the present pastor, the worthy successor of Swartz, have prevailed among these most unpromising subjects; and many who were professed thieves only a few years ago, are now an honour to the Christian profession,† and industrious peasants.' p. 170.

We shall conclude by comparing with the coercive destruction of widows, which disgraces the dominion of Brahma, our author's observations on the state of the women among the Syrian Christians.

""The sight of the WOMEN assured me that I was once more (after a long absence from England) in a Christian country. For the Hindoo women, and the Mahomedan, and in short, all women who are not Christians, are accounted by the men an inferior race; and, in general, are confined to the house for life, like irrational creatures. In every countenance now before me I thought I could discover the intelligence of Christianity." p. 210.

The Olla is the Palmyra leaf, on which the students and catechists take down the sermon in Tamul in short hand.

A farther account of these converts is given in the report of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, anno 1809. It must not be forgotten, that this society, under whose auspices the first Protestant mission was sent, and is still supported in Hindostan, is, as Dr. Buchanan justly styles it, the Venerable Mother' of all those which are now exerting their influence in the same cause.