The occasion of the present Publication arises from the circumstance of many Proprietors, and other Persons, having considered that the mass of Evidence thus collected from voluminous Parliamentary Papers, which are not accessible to all, even of the Proprietors themselves, ought to be placed within the reach of every one who may feel disposed to consult it. The Editor had the less hesitation in yielding to their request, as it appeared to him only due to the honourable testimony borne by so many Residents in India, to the guilt of blood, and the practicability of its removal, that the Proprietors and the Public should be apprized of the noble stand which has been made by such Men, against the unnecessary abominations by which they have been surrounded; and no less due to those enlightened Individuals in the British Parliament, to whose humane interference we owe the production of all the information we possess, that their exertions should be also commended to the gratitude of the East India Company, and of the Nation.*

With respect to the part taken by the Mover, he desires thus publicly to acknowledge, that if any consequences shall follow his humble efforts,

* In the first rank of those who are here referred to, may be classed the name of T. F. BUXTON, Esq., the Member for Weymouth, "whose high and honourable character," (to quote the language of Mr. R. JACKSON,)" and the eminent degree in which "he possesses the confidence of the House of Commons, has given strength to his generous and virtuous exertions.”

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which may conduce to the glory of God, and the interests of Humanity, he wishes altogether to refer such a result, as well as all the aid, of whatever nature, which he has received in advocating this cause, to Him "from whom," to use the language of Scripture, "cometh every good and

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every perfect gift;" or, to adopt the Scriptural phraseology of the Church of England, "by whose

holy inspiration we think those things that are "good, and by whose merciful guidance we per"form the same."

SPEECH,

&c.

Mr. CHAIRMAN,

I HOPE I shall not be charged with undue presumption in venturing upon a subject of so much difficulty and delicacy as the present, when I assure the Court that it arises from no fault of mine that the motion which I have the honor to submit, is not in better and abler hands; and I speak in the presence of those who know that it has long been my object and desire that others, who would have done it ampler justice, should rather have had the charge of it than myself, under whom I should have esteemed it an honor to have acted. It has so happened, however, that one friend who stood pledged upon this subject, has been removed by death, another has departed to a distant duty, and such as remain, have, from one cause or another, finally left the matter in the hands in which it at present rests. Under these circumstances, I have only to throw myself upon the candour and kindness of the Court. I feel in unfeigned need of such indulgence, not only on my own account personally, but because, since the very nature of my subject renders it necessary that I should rather

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produce the opinions of competent witnesses upon such a question, (by which alone it ought to be decided,) than bring before the Court any conclusion of my own, there may possibly be found some documentary references likely to prove less interesting: I intreat, therefore, a patient hearing, and that, whatever may be the result, I may be indulged with the attention of the Court to the evidence I shall produce.

It is now about ten years since, that a man who had been much in India, and to whom India is under no small obligations, brought before the British public an account of the immolation of a very aged female near Calcutta, which sacrifice was, however, devoid of any circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and entirely within the limits of the present Prohibitory Regulations; and he says, "In a discussion which this event produced in "Calcutta, it was asked who was guilty of the "blood of this woman? The government in India "was exculpated on the ground that the govern"ment at home never sent instructions on the sub

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ject; and the Court of Directors were exculpat"ed, because they were the agents of others. It "remained that the Proprietors of India Stock, "who originate and sanction all proceedings of "the Court of Directors, were remotely accessary "to the deed. The best vindication of the great body of Proprietors is this, that some of them never heard of the female sacrifice at all; and "that few of them are acquainted with the full ex

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