APPENDIX.

HUMANE HINTS

FOR THE

MELIORATION OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN BRITISH INDIA.

On the connexion that exists between Britain and India, and the consequent duty of this country to promote the welfare of the superstitious and degraded inhabitants of the East, Lord Teignmouth very justly observes,—"Were the same superstitions, or the same barbarous and licentious rites, which are now exhibited on the banks of the Ganges, to be practised on the banks of the Thames, or even in the remotest part of the British Islands, they would excite the strongest possible feelings of horror, and stimulate our efforts to substitute a purer and more benign system in the place of Hindoism,—this compound of cruelty and crime. But surely, to the eye of reason, the distance of that part of our dominions, in which this system prevails, makes no real difference. It is equally a portion of our empire; subject to our rule, and contributing largely to our prosperity. May we not still further consider the natives of Hindostan in the relation of tenants, to whom we are bound by the obligations and duties of landlords? If these circumstances are attentively weighed, they will exhibit a most extraordinary phenomenon.* The most enlightened, im

*"Even in a cultivated and Christianized man, the disposition to sympathise in the woes of others is in proportion only to the distance, and not to the qualities of the sufferer, or the degree of his agony. And this feeling seems to be in the inverse ratio, both of distance and of

proved, and (may we not say?) most religious nation upon earth, standing for many years in the closest of all social relations to a people bowed down under a dark and degrading superstition—might it not be very naturally supposed, by those who in the varying fortunes of nations acknowledged the hand of a superintending providence, that it had been the design of heaven,—in bringing these vast countries under the dominion of a nation enjoying the purest of all systems of religion, that their benighted and depraved inhabitants might thus receive the light of Christian truth, and the blessings of a sound morality? They who might hesitate to accede to this, would readily acknowledge that it is at least our duty to endeavour, in every way, to promote the wellbeing and happiness of our Oriental fellow-subjects."*

"As far as cruelty (cruelty of any kind) is tolerated in a state, its pretensions to civilization may be questioned, and its views must be considered proportionably contracted." The Quarterly Review for Jan. 1828, justly observes,― Superstition, ignorance, and delusion must be dispelled; new rights and new duties must be inculcated; motives, charities, affections, hitherto unknown, must be imparted: mountains must be removed, a moral reformation must be wrought in the character of the people of India." Must new rights and new duties be inculcated;-motives, charities, and affections hitherto unknown,' be imparted to the inhabitants of India? Where can they be originated so well as in the mother country, and then assisted and matured by the humane and pious in every part of India? Philanthropic exertions, to improve the state of society, would

number. That which would excite inexpressible solicitude, and produce a most prompt, if it could possibly be a successful interposition, [if transacted within the precincts of our city, or at the length of a street, loses almost all its power to interest when it is done in another country and another hemisphere; as if geographical space altered the very character of moral delinquency: while again the greater the multitude that suffer, the less appears to be the amount of sympathy—the individual has more of human commiseration than the mass of the dying or oppressed. Let a man burn his mother at our door, from any cause, and the nation would cry out with horror; but let ten thousand mothers die upon the funeral pile, by the same unnatural instrumentality, and scarcely has the world one tear to shed—one sigh to heave."—Review of India's Cries, 1st edit. World Paper, July 24th, 1829.

* Considerations on the Practicability, Policy, and Obligation of communicating to the Natves of India the Knowledge of Christianity, Hatchard, pp. 92, 93.

greatly facilitate the progress of Christianity, and enable Britain with greater ease to discharge the debt she owes the eastern part of her empire. The author has for some time desired to present these documents to the notice of a humane and Christian public, and particularly to the friends of Humane Societies. The Reports of the Royal Humane Society, instituted in London, 1774, are highly interesting, and display the humanity and magnanimity of the Christian character. The cities of Calcutta and Madras are enrolled among the number of Foreign Humane Societies; but what are these two Institutions for the whole of Hindostan? What influence can they exert for the elevation of the Native character? A Humane Society, embracing various philanthropic objects, at every principal station, would be highly beneficial to society. British India needs the efforts of such Societies to raise the tone of sympathetic and heroic feeling in the preservation of human life. In India 'dying men are no more regarded than dying weeds.' What a perfect contrast is formed by the apathy and cruelty of the Hindoos—as seen in suffering a boat full of people to drown without trying to assist them, in their Pilgrimages, Ghaut Murders, Infanticides, Suttees, &c.—and the noble efforts of Britons for the rescue of their fellow-creatures from a premature grave. (See the various Reports of the Royal Humane Society).

The following miscellaneous articles, it is hoped, may form humane hints calculated to promote the welfare of British India. It is a Syrian Proverb, "A glance is enough for the intelligent." The institution of the Royal Humane Society is attributed to Dr. Hawes, of whom it is stated,— "To the persevering efforts of this gentleman, and especially to his disinterested early efforts, the English Nation is indebted for the formation of a Society which, whether we reflect on its purposes or success, does honour to our country, and exhibits most impressively the power of a single mind to accomplish objects of the most benign character and extensive utility." May the perusal of these pages stimulate some humane and energetic minds to commiserate the miseries of India, and, in connexion with the general diffusion of Christianity, promote among its inhabitants the adoption of those various philanthropic measures, for the alleviation of human misery and the preservation of life, which confer so many blessings upon the British Isles.

(1.) Attention to promote the salubrity of the Presidencies, and of the Cities and Towns in India, is very important. Of the insalubrity of Calcutta, a correspondent in the Columbian Press Gazette, Sep. 20, 1825, thus writes:—

"It is very lamentable to notice the great supineness which prevails in Calcutta with regard to any attempt to improve its healthiness, or even to inquire into the causes of the dreadful mortality which, year after year, visits the poor natives of this city; especially when we view examples of the most praiseworthy energy in every other part of the world, and in every other town in the Company's possessions. At Madras we lately saw orders issued for the cutting down the hedges, which it was agreed prevented the proper ventilation of the place. At Bombay the improvements in new roads, and proper attention to cleanliness, have made the Island, which was before much below Calcutta in salubrity, now full five per cent, superior to it. In every large town in our provinces the alterations taking place are most judicious and very extensive, under the superintendence of local Committees, composed of all the Civil Officers, with the assistance of the resident Engineers and Executive Officers; the whole of the town duties of the respective places being appropriated, I believe, to these purposes alone. In Calcutta we have the Lottery Committee making a gradual progress in improving the centre of the town; but in all the vast extent of the suburbs, with a population thrice that of Calcutta, we see no measures whatever adopted either to drain the stagnant tanks, to remove filth, to cut down weeds and jungle, to make roads, or to preseve them. While the suburbs remain in their present close and pestiferious state, it is impossible but we shall always have to record the same scenes of misery, the same daily deaths of hundreds, both in and out of Calcutta, with which the Papers have for the last two months been so plentifully and alas! so vainly filled. Why is nothing done to prevent this periodical destruction? Why are the Natives allowed to die by thousands without any attempts to remove the causes of this devastation? The answer to these questions is obvious enough, but I may not venture to give it."*

"I know not from what singular fatality it has arisen," says the late Bishop Heber," that almost all the principal establishments of the English in India have been fixed in bad situations. The reason which I have heard given is the unwillingness of Government to interfere with the comforts of their subjects, or to turn out people from their farms and villages, which has compelled them to fix on spots previously uninhabited and untilled; which, of course, in an anciently peopled country have generally been neglected in consequence of some natural disadvantage. But it would be so easy at a moderate rate to recompense any Zemindar or Ryot, whom a new cantonment inconvenienced, and the bad effects of an unwholesome or otherwise ill-situated station are so great, that this is a reason which, though it was gravely given, I could hardly hear with gravity. The fact however is certain; Secrole, the cantonments at Lucknow, nay, Calcutta itself, are all abominably situated. I have heard the same of Madras, and now the lately settled cantonment of Nusserabad appears to be as objectionable as any of them."—Jour. Vol. i. p. 582.—See Hamilton's Hindoo, Vol. i. p. 49. "The attention of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta has been directed

From the following recent information it appears that attention is excited to this subject. "The roads in the eastern suburbs of Calcutta are undergoing a thorough repair; some of them are to be widened, and other improvements are to be effected, which will be conducive both to the comfort and health of the inhabitants; in particular, all the superfluous vegetation is to be removed. A canal from the northward to Chitpore, by that adjoining the Salt Water Lake, and terminating at Entally, is commenced; and a still more important improvement, with a view to diminish the causes of malaria, is in contemplation, namely to drain the Salt Water Lake."*

(2.) A suggestion in the India Gazette, in Sep. 1825, for the erection of Porticos at the Ghauts in Calcutta, appears worthy of notice.

"You would permit the Hindoos to be carried to the side of the river to die, provided they were kept there under shelter, and not exposed without covering to the scorching of a noon-day sun, or the drenching of a tropical shower. Unfortunately there is no shelter at any of the Ghauts, which appears a great oversight on the part of the Lottery Committee. There should be a handsome Portico, or double Colonnade, erected at each Ghaut, along the Strand. Every person who has had to embark or land at either of the Ghauts during the heat of noon-day, and to wait for a boat or carriage, must know how desirable such a shelter would be; and how much more so would it be to those whose occupation keeps them for hours or days in attendance at the river's side, and to the unfortunate creatures forced down thither, by a lamentable superstition, in the extremity of sickness! The only Ghaut that is so covered in, that I recollect, is at Cossipore; the work, not of the Government, but of a rich native gentleman, who also made at his expense the road from the Ghaut to Dum Dum, which has so greatly improved that part of the suburbs.—A SUBSCRIBER. "The Lottery Committee," says the Editor," are necessarily limited in their useful labours to the improvement of the city, and it is not at the Ghauts of Calcutta that these cruelties (of exposing the sick) are practised. We agree with our Correspondent on the importance and necessity of the improvement he suggests; which, while it would adorn the view of the city from the river, would be invaluable in point of utility, and greatly add to the convenience of the inhabitants and of all persons resorting to the Capital of British India."

to an Essay on Public Health in India, by Dr. Ranken, applying especially to the choice of situations for the establishment of Civil Stations and Military Cantonments. The greater part of the diseases that prevail in India are ascribed by Dr. R. not so much to the extreme heat or atmospherical vicissitudes, as to the presence of noxious impregnations in the air, exhaled during the decay of vegetable and animal matter. In proportion as these abound, situations will be unhealthy, and salubrity of site will be found exemption from their influence.”—Asi. Jour. Aug. 1827. * Ori. Herald, Sep. 1829.