monies. And the son given, as he is called, is transferred from his own family to that of the adopter, with a consequent exchange of rights and duties. Of these, the principal are the right of succession to the adopter, on the one hand, with the correlative duty of performing for him his last obsequies on the other. The dread is, of a place called Put; a place of horror, to which the manes of the childless are supposed to be doomed; there to be tormented with hunger and thirst, for want of those oblations of food, and libations of water, at prescribed periods, which it is the pious, and indeed indispensable duty of a son (puttra) to offer. Of the eventual condition alluded to, a lively idea is conveyed, in the representation of the sage Mandagola, " desiring admission to a region of bliss, but repulsed by the guards, who watch the abode of progenitors, because he had no male issue;" and it is illustrated by the special mention of heaven being attained without it, as of something extraordinary.'- Vol. i. pp. 61, 62. The desire of offspring so deeply rooted by nature in the human breast is thus increased in the Hindu by susperstition, We are told that there can be no heavier curse upon him than that he may be childless." 6 Paternal relation. 'As to the power of the father over the persons of his children, he has the ordinary one of moderate correction, with the extraordinary one of selling them; if, by that, more be meant, than the power that existed by the ancient law, of selling a son for adoption by the purchaser. That the Hindus are in the practice of selling their children, particularly in seasons of distress, (which was the plea with the Romans also,) is certain; as well as that there are texts to warrant it; though not one that does not stipulate, as essential to the validity of the sale, not only the existence of distress, but assent also of the party interested.'- Vol. i. p. 98. The tenderness with which the Hindu law provides for every individual member of a family is unequalled in any other code. Maintenance by a man of his dependants is, with the Hindus, a primary duty. They hold, that he must be just, before he is generous, his charity beginning at home; and that even sacrifice is mockery, if to the injury of those whom he is bound to maintain. Nor of his duty in this respect are his children the only objects, co-extensive as it is wit * Thus Homer represents the want of children as a fit punishment for those who would brave the will of the immortals : ός αθανατοισι μαχοιτο, Ουδε τι μιν παιδες ποτι γουνασι παππαζουσιν, II. v. 407. And in the curse of Lear upon his undutiful daughter Goneril we have, "From her derogate body, Never spring a babe to honour her." family, whatever be its number, as consisting of other relations and connexions, including (it may be) illegitimate offspring. It extends to the outcaste, if not to the adulterous wife; not to mention such as are excluded from the inheritance, whether through their fault, or their misfortune; all being entitled to be maintained with food and raiment at least, under the severest sanctions.'. Vol. i. pp. 99, 100. - Nor is the provision for the children confined simply to the enjoyment of property in coparcenary: a division, during the lifetime of the father, may in some instances be compelled by the sons; whilst it is, generally speaking, always competent to him to divide it with them if he pleases. The father, however, has it in his power in many instances to make the division according to the merit of the claimants. The good qualities, as the piety, the docility, or the industry of the claimants are frequently considered in making a division of property according to the Hindu law. So also, in the absence of the father, the management of his property may be allotted to the most competent of his sons, without regard to priority of birth. Slavery. The information supplied under this head serves to confute some arguments which gained a very general currency during several late sessions of parliament; namely, that several commodities of the East Indies should be encouraged in preference to those of the West Indies, because those of the former were produced by free labour, whilst those of the latter were produced by slave-labour. The argument would be good if the first part of the premises were true. "Slavery," Sir Thomas tells us, in the words of Mr. Colebrooke, "is fully recognized in the Hindu law; and the various modes by which a person becomes a slave are enumerated in passages which will be found quoted in Jagannatha's Digest, comprehending capture in war, voluntary submission to it for divers causes; involuntary, as in payment of debt, or by way of punishment; birth, or offspring of a female slave; and gift, sale, or other transfer by a former owner.' - Vol. i. p. 129. So far from slavery being unknown in our possessions. in the East Indies, it will perhaps be found that the system is there more firmly rooted, and more extensively tolerated, than in any other part of the world. We are told that, wherever, in Hindu law, land is spoken of, slaves, if not mentioned with, are understood to be included, being regarded by it as real property; of course descendible and otherwise transferable.' It seems that one method of gaining a property in them, contemplated by the law, is that of winning them in play! It is even said, in the work before us, that children are frequently stolen for the purpose of being sold. Amongst the sorts of slavery recognised in the East, the following probably have no parallel in any other country: Where a man cohabits with, and much more where he marries the slave-girl of another, he thereby becomes the slave of her owner. The converse of which also holds; since if a free woman marry a slave she becomes the property of her husband's master.' Further, these slaves can have no property except by their owners' consent. We cordially join with our venerable author in expressing an abhorrence of this state of slavery; and we trust that the clear and forcible view which he has given of its existence, will direct the attention of the nation, as far as prudently may be, to its discouragement and reform. Inheritance.-This is a subject of great extent and nicety in detail; and we can only give the general rules. It is to be remembered that the Hindus are a patriarchal people, many families often living together as one; connected in blood, and united in interests; with various relative dependants, to be provided for out of the aggregate fund; but subject always to separation, by common consent, or at the instance of any one, or more, wishing to be disjoined, in his or their concerns; and subject also to the exclusion of any one or more, from participation in the inheritance. Such union of interests, among families living together, and carrying on their transactions in common, constitutes coparcenary, to which survivorship attaches, differing in this particular respect from coparcenary with us, and resembling rather jointenancy; so that, on the death of a Hindu parcener, the succession to his rights, with exception of property separately acquired by him, vests in the other remaining members, his sons, if he leave any, representing him as to his undivided rights, while the females of his family continue to depend on the aggregate fund, and under the general protection, till a partition takes place, which may never happen.' — Vol. i, pp. 141, 142. Widowhood.- The first thing that occurs, in contemplating the state of widowhood among the people in question, is, its horrid termination, almost the moment it commences, in instances, in which religious enthusiasm has been made to operate on the hopes and fears of the deluded victims ; to burn with her deceased husband, being inculcated upon the Hindu widow, not out of respect to his memory merely, but as the means of his redemption, from the unhappy state into which he is believed to have passed; and, as ensuring, in consequence, to herself, (not everlasting indeed, but) long-continued felicity. Ascending his pile, and casting herself with him into the same flame, she is said "to draw her lord from a region of torment, as a serpent-catcher draws a snake from his hole." Her virtue expiates whatever crimes he had committed even to the "slaying a Brahmin, returning evil for good, or killing his friend." And, for this proof of it, a kind of Mahomedan paradise is promised her. They mount together to the higher regions; and there, with the best of husbands, lauded by choirs of Apsaras, she sports with him as long as fourteen Indras reign; - or, according to another medium of computation, for so many years as there are hairs on the human body.* It is * Angiras, 2 Dig. 451. 'Nec minus uxores famâ celebrantur Eoæ. Non illæ lacrymis, -non fœmineo ululatu Fata virum plorant; verum (miserabile dictu) not, however, a practice, to which the Hindus are in general enthusias tically attached; or about which, as to its propriety, they are universally agreed. That it has, under certain restrictions and regulations, the sanction of the Shaster, admits of no dispute; upon which ground any attempt to suppress it has been reprobated. In one particular tribe, (Jogee, or caste of weavers,) the widow, in the Bengal provinces, buries alive with her deceased husband; but, according to the course generally observed in India in disposing of the dead, the common mode of selfimmolation is, by burning with him on the same pile. Subject to slight varieties in different castes, and different parts of the country, in every instance of it one thing is clear; that, to be legal, the sacrifice on the part of the victim must be voluntary. It follows that it can be per formed only by an adult, in possession of her faculties, and free: not stu pified for the purpose by drugs; not influenced by designing priests, or interested relations; still less impelled by violence. Of the latter, oc currences are but too frequent, where, from her inability to sustain the fiery trial, the unhappy devotee, relenting in the course of it, is prevented from escaping, by the act of her relations, or others present; who, to obviate the disgrace of failure, to say nothing of less justifiable motives, will sometimes, with bamboos, push her into the hottest part of the fire, keeping her there by force till life be extinct; a conduct amenable to prosecution, but of which no instance appears, otherwise than as for a misdemeanor; though it goes nigh to realize the martyrdom of St. Lawrence !' - Vol. i. pp. 236-238. The testamentary Power. It seems to be clearly determined that the Hindu law admits of such an instrument as a will. The latitude given to a testator by the English law of leaving the members of his family destitute has been complained of, not without reason, by our learned commentator, who observes that " it had not been amiss if he had been bound to leave them, at the least, a necessary subsistence." The Hindu law, in its anxiety to provide for every member of a family, is indubitably more just than our own. It is better suited also to the character of the people, which is agricultural, and, therefore, has not the same need of those large capitals, which sometimes contribute to the public good in our own commercial country. More especially must every attempt at engrafting our system of wills upon the Hindu law be regarded as an; abuse, when we consider that the last hours of the Hindu are generally under the influence of an artful Brahmin, the making of gifts to whom is considered as extremely meritorious. Contracts. The law upon this subject is in a great degree common to all nations, and is perhaps regulated more by a common standard of reason than the law upon any other subject. Our author, like many other learned ones, has shown a fondness for tracing to a common origin, such doctrines as seem to prevail throughout all civilised society. But we would rather regard the coincidences in the law on contracts of different nations as the reasonable consequence of that similar intercourse of which all societies must, in the advancement, stand in need. In a retrospect of these volumes, if the mind occasionally revolts at the superstition of the Hindus, we shall yet have much to admire. The benevolent provision made for every member of a community, whilst it increases the happiness of the mass, is a strong preventive against crime; for it is too true that crime is often the child of want. In justice to the author, we must observe, that he has bestowed the greatest pains upon this work. There is a wide field for similar occupation in the East, but the most efficient labourers are excluded from it, by the monopolising system of the Company. It is from the learned leisure which precedes eminence, that researches in the law are chiefly enriched in this country. In India only a limited number, licensed by the Directors, are allowed to reap the benefits of the profession. Their time being necessarily taken up in practice, few, if any, can devote any portion of their years to the Sanscrit language, in which, as Sir William Jones observed, the Hindu law is locked up. Hence it happens that upon points often very trivial, we are obliged to have recourse to the native pundits for authority, who, truth obliges us to say, are not always superior to corrupt motives. If the practice at the bar in India were left unrestricted, as it ought to be, it cannot be doubted that the body of practitioners would be more able, than are the present few sent out merely by the interest which they can command at the India House. Talents and letters have ever been proud of their title of Republic: they must respire the free air of competition. If the India Company would be more liberal in this respect, their courts and their councils would be more enlightened, and their sway would be more respected. ART. VIII. A Legacy for Young Ladies; consisting of Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Verse. By the late Mrs. Barbauld. London. Longman, and Co. 1826. MRS. BARBAULD was indefatigable in the good work of moral improvement in youth, as well as in age, married or single, in solitude or society, she was ever fulfilling her destiny of beneficent and useful instruction. Her whole life was but a well-concerted scheme of diffusive benefit; and now from her grave she emits a voice renewing those lessons of wisdom and virtue. The miscellaneous pieces, of which this little volume is composed, were discovered among the papers of Mrs. Barbauld since her lamented decease; and, without dissenting from the propriety of the feeling which gave the collection to the world, we are disposed to think |