corresponding with it, shall be entitled to the full amount of their annual subscriptions in School Books at cost price.

Rev. W. Bowley,

List of the Committee.

Rev. R. C. Mather,

W. Smith,

W. Smith.

W. P. Lyon,

W. Buyers,

Treasurer, Secretary, and Collector, the Rev. J. A. Schurman, to whom all applications for books and all subscriptions and donations are to be

sent.

Since the books in the depository of the Society have been advertized in the Calcutta Christian Observer and the Khair Khwáh i Hind we have sold a great number of them, to the amount of about 50 rupees per month, partly to private individuals and partly to conductors of Christian schools at Banaras, Chunár, Mirzápúr, Allahabad, and other places. The time has evidently arrived when Christian School Book Societies must be established in India. During the last famine thousands of poor orphans have been saved from destruction by Christian benevolence, and are now placed under Christian instruction in various places. These schools must be supplied with Christian school books, and where or to whom shall we look for a supply? The Calcutta School Book Society can only supply us with books from which the Christian Religion is carefully excluded, and many of them contain only silly oriental tales. The Christian public must therefore, open new channels from which the wants of their Schools may be supplied. We are of opinion that pious men, after the establishment of a Christian School Book Society in India, can no longer support a Society which proscribes their holy religion, which they value more than all their earthly possessions. The advocates of heathenish education will on principle, never support us: can we, on principle, support them? This is an important question which every good and pious man in the land is now called upon to decide for himself. Let us not suffer ourselves to be outdone by them in principle.

The third Rule shows that the Society is determined to give to the Roman as well as native character a fair chance, and leave both to their intrinsic merits. This Society offers, therefore, a rallying point to all Ro manizers in India, and if they will send us manuscripts of useful schoolbooks and money to carry them through the press, a literature in the lingua franca of all India, the Hindustání; and the Roman character, in a few years will, we hope, prove as successful as we desire it should.

Then the pure stream of knowledge and of truth will flow from Banáras the holy city, in all directions watering and fertilizing the great moral desert of Hindustan.

The Committee intend to publish, as soon as sufficient funds have been raised, a translation of the (celebrated) "Child's Book on the Soul" in the Hindustání language and Roman character, Miss Bird's Ancient History (simplified), her Sair i Anglistán (simplified) and her Geography, (simplified and adapted to schools), Dr. Gilchrist's Hindustání Grammar, Mr. Brown's Hindustání Arithmetic and a great many others. The friends of education will keep in mind that our schools are literally waiting for these books, and that we must have them. If they will liberally support us, the Committee will speedily carry the above works and many others through the press.

Subscriptions and donations for the Society will be received in Calcutta by the Rev. T. Boaz ; at Banáras by the Rev. J. A. Schurman; at Mirzápur, by the Rev. R. C. Mather, and at Allahabad by the Rev. J. Wilson.

Yours, &c.

ONE OF THE COMMITTEE,

VI.-East Indian Slavery.

The re-agitation of the subject of West Indian Slavery, and the feeling and discussions elicited by the exportation of the natives of India to the slave colonies of Britain; has naturally drawn attention to the existence of slavery in every part of the world, and amongst other parts, to slavery as it has existed, or may now exist, in the East Indies. The subject has been more than once alluded to by the advocates of humanity in Britain, and will doubtless, ere long, hold a much more prominent place, in anti-slavery effort, than it has hitherto done. We think it a duty incumbent upon us therefore as Christian Observers, to put our readers and the public at large in possession, (as far as it is practicable,) of such facts as may tend to explain and illustrate the origin, nature, and extent, of East Indian slavery. We shall endeavour to do this in as fair and dispassionate a manner, as the very crude materials in our possession, or at command will permit. We fear, however that our utmost diligence, will not prevent errors statistical, or of other kinds from creeping in. We shall be happy however to correct such errors, provided the communications made to us on the subject are impartial and authentic. It is useless for us to descant on the injustice or horrors of slavery; the spirit of the age in which we live is so fully impressed with its being a violation of both human and divine law, that it needs neither excitement nor information on the general subject to awaken an interest for its general extermination. All that is required is, that the local existence of slavery and its evils should be calmly pointed out, with a view to its amelioration and extinction; and in God's time it will be effected. Premising that such is the case, (at least with those who come within the range of our labours,) we shall at once address ourselves to the subject of slavery as it was, and is in the East Indies.

Our contemporary the Oriental Christian Spectator having taken up the subject in connexion with the west of India, we shall in the first instance treat on the slavery of Bengal, Hindustán, and the surrounding territories. It may, perhaps, be as well at the commencement to explain, as far as it is practicable, the origin and nature of the slavery of the East Indies.

The origin of slavery in this country is involved in considerable obscurity; the probability is, however, that it had its origin, (as in most other countries,) in an ignorant and feudal state of society; that it was the villain servility of the lower orders to the landed proprietors or zemindars, that it was in fact the slavery of the soil. The early history of Britain and of all European powers exhibits this villain or serf-like servitude amongst the lower orders, amounting in most cases to little better than the most abject slavery. In this country every

thing did tend, and even now tends, (out of the reach of European influence,) to take advantage of this state of things-to lord it over the weak. Servility is the path to favour and in many instances the very courtiers of Eastern Princes are little better, than well dressed slaves. How much more must it be the case with their menials and serfs. The very expressions employed in seeking to approach the presence of a superior shows how deeply this feeling of slavish servility is seated in the native mind. "Your slave wishes to throw himself at your blessed feet-your slave seeks favour in your sight," &c. are not uncommon expressions. Out of this hereditarily claimed right over the masses has originated the practices of transfer, exportation from one state to another, kidnapping, sales, and the like.

The following extract, from official documents, as it regards agricultural slavery, will explain and confirm these assertions.

"The Collector at Trichinopoly, in the Madras Presidency, in reply to the inquiries of the Government, addressed to a number of Collectors on the subject of slavery in their respective districts, describes the origin of pullers* or agricultural slavery as follows :-' It is, I apprehend, indisputable, that in the earliest ages of Hindoo government, agricul tural and domestic slavery existed to an indefinite extent. The prac tice was sanctioned by prescription, and upheld by law: but it will be found that the terms of bondage, and the nature of the services required from the slaves, differed essentially in almost every district. No distinct information can be obtained at what period agricultural slavery commenced. It is now impossible to trace, whether this esta blishment took its rise from the voluntary submission of the indigent to the wealthy, or whether the pullers were originally captives taken in war. But, as this species of bondage is generally the concomitant of barbarous governments, it must of necessity have been a very ancient institution of the Hindoos. Under their arbitrary government, the distinctions of caste were scrupulously maintained; and, adverting to the circumstance of the meerassidars in Trichinopoly being Brahmuns it scarcely excites surprise that agricultural slavery should exist here unchanged and undiminished." "

On the subject of transfer it is said:

"The Provincial Council of Patna, in August 1774, address the Governor, Warren Hastings, Esq., on this subject as follows:- We find that there are two kinds of slaves in this province, Mussulman and Hindoo; the former are properly called Mualazadeh, and the latter Kahaar. Slaves of either denomination are considered in the same light as any other property, and are transferrible by the owner, or descend at his demise to his heirs. They date the rise of the custom of Kahaar slavery from the first incursions of the Mahomedans when the captives

* A numerous class of agricultural serfs or slaves in the Madras Presidency. + Par. Papers, p. 892.

VII.

4 D

were distributed by the general among the officers of his army, with whose posterity they remained. All other slaves have become so by occasional purchase, as in cases of famine, &c. The Kaboleh must be signed by the mother or grandmother, and not by the father. Children also born of slaves are the property of the owner of the woman, though married to a slave of a different family*."

The slavery of the East had its origin also in another singular cause, the punishment of capital offences :

"The following extracts, from the Parliamentary Papers on slavery in India, afford some information upon a subject interesting to every humane mind. These papers commence with the following regulation for punishing dacoits or robbers, and shew one source of slavery in the East. That whereas the peace of this country hath for some years past been greatly disturbed by bands of decoits, who not only infest the high roads, but often plunder whole villages, burning the houses and murdering the inhabitants: and whereas these abandoned outlaws have hitherto found means to elude every attempt which the vigilance of government hath put in force, for detecting and bringing such atrocious criminals to justice, by the secrecy of their haunts, and the wild state of the districts which are most subject to their incursi. ons; it becomes the indispensable duty of government to try the most rigorous means, since experience has proved every lenient and ordinary remedy to be ineffectual: that it be therefore resolved, that every such criminal, on conviction, shall be carried to the village to which he belongs, and be there executed for a terror and example to others; and, for the further prevention of such abominable practices, that the village, of which he is an inhabitant, shall be fined according to the enormity of the crime, and each inhabitant according to his substance; and that, the family of the criminal shall become the slaves of the state, and be disposed of for the general benefit and convenience of the people, according to the discretion of the government. Aug. 1772.'"

We shall allow the following extract to speak for itself: "Questions put to the Muftee by the Nizamut Adawlut, on the subject of Musalman slavery.

First Ques. What description of slaves are authorized by Mahomedan law?'

"Ans. All men are by nature free and independent, and no man can be a subject of property, except an infidel inhabiting a country not under the power and control of the faithful. This right of possession which the Moslems have over Hurbus (infidels fighting against the faith) is acquired by Isteela, which means, the entire subduement of any subject of property by force of arms. The original right of property, which one man may possess over another, is to be acquired solely by Isteela, and cannot be obtained in the first instance by purchase, donation, or heri. tage. When, therefore, an Imaum subdues, by force of arms, any one of the cities inhabited by infidels, such of them as may be taken pri soners become his rightful property, and he has the power of putting them to death or making them slaves, and distributing them as such * Par. Papers on slavery in India, p. 5. + Par. Papers, p. 2.

among the ghazees (victorious soldiers), particularly when fighting against infidels; or he may set them at liberty in a Mussulman country, and levy the capitation tax; should he make them slaves, they become legal subjects of property, and are transferrable by sale, gift, or inheritance. But, if after captivity, they should become converts to the faith (Islam), the power of death over them is thereby barred, though they would continue slaves; for, slavery being the necessary consequence of original infidelity, the subsequent conversion to Islain does not affect the prior state of bondage to which the individual has been regularly rendered liable by Isteela, provided this be clearly established. From this it is evident that the same rules are applicable to the slaves of both sexes. If slaves are afterwards sold, or given away, by the Imaum, or by the ghazees, who shared at the distribution, or if they should become the property of another by inheritance, they then become slaves under the three different classes of purchase, donation, and inheritance.

"If a female should bear offspring, by any other than by her legal lord and master, whether the father be a freeman or a slave, and whether the slave of the said master, or of any other person, in any one of these cases, such offspring is subject to slavery, and these are called khanazad (born in the family); but, if the children be the acknowledged offspring of the right owner, they are then free, and the mother of them (being the parent of a child by her master) becomes, at his decease, free also; and this rule is applicable to all their descendants to the latest posterity. The practice among free men and women of selling their own offspring, during the time of famine, is exceedingly improper and unjustifiable, being in direct opposition to the principle above stated, viz. that no man can be a subject of property, except an infidel taken in the act of hostilities against the faith. In no case can a person, legally free, become a subject of property; and, children not being the property of their parents, all sales or purchases of them, as any other articles of illegal property, are consequently invalid. It is also illegal for any free man to sell his own person, either in time of famine or though he be oppressed by a debt which he is unable to discharge, For in the first of these cases a famished man may feed upon a dead body! or may rob another; and a distressed debtor is not liable to any fine or punishment.

We are not acquainted with the principal or detailed circumstances, which led to the custom prevailing in most Mussulman countries of purchasing and selling the inhabitants of Zanguibar, Ethiopia, Nubia, and other Negroes: but the ostensible causes are, either that the Negroes sell their own offspring, or that Mussulman or other tribes of people take them prisoners by fraud, or seize them by stealth from the sea shores. In such cases, they are not legally slaves, and the sale and purchase of them are consequently invalid. But if a Mussulman army, by order of an Imaum, should invade their country, and make them prisoners of war by force of arms, they are then legal slaves; provided that such Negroes are inhabitants of a country under the government of Infidels, and in which a Mussulman is not entitled to receive the full benefit and protection of his own laws. With regard