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Scotland and Ireland may be the case, I should wish to see it transferred elsewhere. Surely the Lords cannot wish to retain it, when it is practically no sort of honour.

As to the result, I have been disappointed, though I must own that I had no reason to be more sanguine. I fancied at first that the release of the prisoners on a merely legal point, not affecting the justice of the sentence, would not have produced that frantic exultation which we now see to be the case. It is a great blow to the friends of the Union, to the Courts of Justice, and to all possible governments.

What is now to be done? I think doubtful and difficult cases should be avoided; but I do not see that gross and almost treasonable libels, such as I read in the Irish papers, should be left unpunished; otherwise we must soon come to war, and I fear that the Repealers will rapidly increase.

Meantime, our friend Guizot has kept us out of an awkward business; for war with France in the critical state of Ireland would have been a most dangerous event. I suppose we have got all the reparation due to Mr. Pritchard; but in fact it is a curious thing that the French case against him has never, as far as I have seen, been specially developed. A war on this occasion would be worse than that for Captain Jenkins's ears.

I found Scotland still full of the Free Church, and my own friends much divided. Jeffrey is a Free Church man, Abercromby and Murray quite the reverse. It is a good deal analogous to our English ecclesiastical disputes, which happily have not ripened yet into opposition

to the law or separation from the Church. Chalmers and oɩ πeρı faλμwdov represent our ultra-High-Church Church of Oxford; and the resistance to them on the part of the lawyers and gentry is founded on a dread of their encroachments in private life, which may be chimerical, but does exist. The worst is that full one-half of the people are gone over to the anti-Erastian party, and their churches, now very numerous, are filled. How, then, can the Establishment be maintained ?--for the Dissenters, called Seceders, were previously reckoned at one-third of the population. Surely we are not to have the anomaly of Ireland repeated? I can see no possible reason for an Establishment if it does not serve a good purpose for the majority of the people. A bare majority ought not to suffice to bring about a change, but an enormous disproportion is repugnant to common I doubt whether there is one man on the continent of Europe who would not condemn the Irish Protestant Church as an abuse. But I am far from saying that the whale O'Connell would cease to follow the ship if this tub were thrown to him. It would probably do much more harm than good.

sense.

Wraxall Lodge, near Bristol,
August 1, 1845.

The The Session is now closing, but I hear with more than usual dissatisfaction on every side. The Reform Bill chiefly, with other circumstances, has given us a constitution that does not work well. The annual

complaint, that much is talked and little done, will recur more and more. The great cause is that nothing is thought too trifling to occupy the time of Parliament, and no Member too insignificant to bring it forward. The whole executive power is thus thrown into the House of Commons; not, indeed, quá executive, but so far as deciding what ought to be done, or what has been done rightly. This, which in important matters is the necessary right of the Commons, has been stretched to an interference with all the routine of government, especially in personal questions, such as the appointment or dismissal of inferior officers. If we add to this the accumulation of private Bills, many of which, in my opinion, would far better be determined by some independent tribunal, we shall see how impossible it becomes to carry through Parliament half the important measures of legislation which are required, still more to deliberate upon them. I much incline to think that railways in particular might be discussed before some better tribunal than a Committee of the House the evidence would be printed, and the Bill discussed in the House, quite as well as it is at present after the Report of a Committee. Such a Court would sit during the recess, and might have its circuits, to the saving of vast expense.

Yours very truly,

H. HALLAM.

SUPERSTITIONS IN INDIA.

1845-6.

HERE follow a few short extracts from among the many taken at the India Board, where I was Joint Secretary from the summer of 1845 till the close of Sir Robert Peel's administration. They are intended to illustrate the strange superstitions and the revolting rites that unhappily lingered in some parts of India. Against some of the rites, and more especially those of the Khondes, the English Government took the most energetic measures in its power, but never, it is feared, with complete success. S.

The Khondes.

[Madras Revenue, P. C. No. 3559, Mr. Stark's note.] "THE Khondes, a savage race dwelling in the extensive range of hills and jungles beyond Ganjam, are notorious for their Meriahs, or human sacrifices to their false gods. One of these abominable rites was solemnised in all their villages at the full moon, January 8th, 1841. 'There are at this day,' writes Lord Elphinstone, in a Minute of that date, 'probably not less than two hun

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dred and forty human beings immolated within the hills of Ganjam.'

"It had been supposed that the Khondes did not sacrifice any of their own tribe; but Major Campbell, Assistant Commissioner in Ganjam, ascertained that the only condition which is strictly observed is, that the victim or Meriah should be purchased; and he states that children are sometimes sold as Meriahs by their parents and other relations for so small a sum as three or four rupees-Khondes as well as Panoos, but the former more rarely."

Assistant-Surgeon J. Cadenhead to P. B. Smollett, Esq. [Extract. Coll. P. C. 5000.]

March 17, 1845.

"I next proceeded to visit the sacrificing tracts of Athara and Bara Mootah. Everything was tranquil ; nevertheless there was still an intense longing on the part of the great body of the people to return to ancient usages. Men's minds were far from easy. The general feeling was given expression to in council by the chiefs, who said: The country is happy, but the government has not yet permitted us to celebrate a sacrifice.'"

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