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20,000 are descendants of those who were taken in battle, or concubines, or brahmin and sooder women, who had lost caste by having connection with men of inferior caste. In Malabar, the number of slaves is about 95,000, the whole population being rather over 1,000,000. Of the 1,600,000 in the province of Travancore, one twelfth are estimated to be slaves. Cochin has 150,000 souls, of whom 12,000 are slaves. Large numbers exist in the province of Tanjore. Agrestic slaves are not found in the central provinces of the peninsula, such as the ceded districts, or Mysore, Northern Circars, Nellore, and in the country where the Telinga language is spoken. It is common wherever the Tamul language is spoken, and assumes its worst form on the western coast of the peninsula, or in the provinces of Malabar and Canara. In all the countries above enumerated, the varieties and sources of domestic slavery are very numerous; namely, those persons who are the offspring or descendants of free born persons captured during wars; outcaste Hindoos, who had been sold into slavery under or by former governments; kidnapped persons, brought by travelling merchants from distant inland states, and sold into slavery; persons imported from the ports in the Persian gulf, in the Red sea, or from the African coast; persons sold when children, by their own parents in time of great famine or dearth; the offspring of illegitimate connections, that is of cohabitation between low caste Hindoo men and brahmin women, and generally between Hindoos of different castes, or within the prohibited degrees of kindred; persons who in consideration of a sum of money, or in discharge of a security for payment of a debt, have bound themselves by a voluntary contract to servitude, either for life, or for a limited period; all which have in former times, or do now prevail more or less, wherever domestic slavery is found. The origin of domestic or praedial slavery is very remote. The general term given for this description of slavery is Adami, or literally serf, aboriginal or indigenous, being held under precisely the same terms or tenures as the land itself, throughout, with some slight modifications, the Malabar coasts, some of the Balagat districts, and in the western parts of the table land of Mysore. Domestic slavery is fully recognized by both the Hindoo and Mohammedan code, as well as by the usages of the people. Agrestic slavery is equally recognized by the common law, called desh-ajary. The practice of disposing of domestic slaves as separate from the soil or land of their birth, is considered as decidedly at variance with and in innovation of that law as observed in ancient times. Such a practice is moreover inconsistent with the due observance of religious ceremonies, every part of Malabar having its tutelar deity, and all classes of slaves having

their household gods to whom on particular days, they perform the same ceremonies that all other castes, who are free born, do to theirs. Mr. Duncan, former governor of Bombay, speaking of the degraded castes of poliars and cherumnars, writes, "They are considered in a great degree in a state of villeinage, and as bondsmen attached to the soil, though they are not properly and lawfully objects of slavery, like slaves in the full extent of that word, unless they happen to be thus made over as part of the stock, at the same time that the master, the brahmin or nairn land-holder, should have disposed of the land on which they live." The treatment of slaves, whether agrestic or domestic, necessarily depends on the individual character of their masters. Of the domestic slaves, especially the most numerous part of them, the females, it is difficult to describe what the treatment is, or how employed, clothed, or subsisted, amongst a people like the natives of India, who, whether Hindoos or Mohammedans, observe such a watchful jealousy in all which regards their domestic economy, and consequently of whose family arrangements and habits, so little can be known. Generally speaking, however, both male and female are employed as menial servants; a great many are kept for purposes of state. With respect to the condition of agrestic slaves, nothing can be more truly miserable. They are slaves to the remotest posterity, and their servitude is also one of unmitigated severity. Their daily allowance of food is about one half of what able bodied men and women receive, provided they do some work. With respect to their dwellings, so very impure are all classes of slaves held, that they are obliged to erect their huts at a distance from all other habitations; neither are they allowed to approach, except within certain prescribed distances, the houses or persons of any of the free castes. Those distances vary from seventy-two to twenty-four paces, as well with reference to the caste of the several grades of freemen, as to their own, for even among these wretched creatures the pride of caste has its influence. If a slave accidentally touches a brahmin, he must purify himself by prayer and ablution, and by changing his poonool, (brahminical thread.) Hence it is that slaves are obliged to leave the road, and call aloud from as far off as they can see.

China.

Since the voyages of the Lord Amherst, a number of other ships have sailed along the coast, none of them, however, reaching the northern provinces, but the Sylph. The usual artful policy was exhibited on the part of the mandarins, but no insurmountable obstacles were thrown in the way of the voyagers. A new era is manifestly dawning on China. The population, it may be hoped, will soon receive the treasures of European civilization.

OBITUARY NOTICES.

RICHARD HEBER.

RICHARD HEBER was half brother to the late bishop Reginald Heber. He was born January 5, 1773, and died October 4, 1833. He was one of the most extraordinary instances of bibliomania which has come to our knowledge. He began his collection of books in college, and spent most of his life in adding to it. The languages embraced in his libraries were English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Latin, Mexican, and others. He was a most indefatigable attendant upon book-auctions, and had possessed himself of the rare volumes owned by Dr. Farmer, E. Malone, George Steevens, J. Perry, the duke of Roxburghe, and many besides. He once purchased an entire library at Paris, of 30,000 volumes. He sometimes encountered a journey of 400 or 500 miles to purchase a rare book, not being willing to trust a written order. His books were deposited at Hodnet, Pimlico, York street in London, Oxford, Paris, Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, and elsewhere. Many of his buildings, including shelves, stair-cases, window-seats, chairs, tables, closets, and garrets, were literally crowded. His rule was to obtain triplicates of all copies, where it was possible, so that he might guard against loss, and also gratify a propensity which every book-monger feels, of being exclusive owner of costly books and editions. But Mr. Heber was not simply a collector of libraries. He had the acquaintance of He understood several lana great number of distinguished men. guages, and edited some of the Greek authors. For six or eight years, he was a member of parliament for the university of Oxford. He was of great assistance in the education of his brother Reginald, and ever treated him with marked kindness.

MARSHAL JOURDAN.

JEAN BAPTISTE JOURDAN was born at Limoges, France, April 29, 1762, and died at Paris, Nov. 23, 1833. He entered the military service in 1778, and fought in this country. In 1791, he commanded a battalion of volunteers in the French army of the north. In 1793, he was appointed general of brigade, and two months after, general of division. In June, 1794, he gained the victory of Fleurus, by which he became conqueror of Belgium, and drove the allies beyond

the Rhine. In 1796, he subdued Franconia, but was soon afterwards totally defeated by the archduke Charles. In March, 1797, he was chosen a member of the council of 500, of which he twice became president. He remained a firm friend to the republic. In 1803, Napoleon named him general in chief of the army of Italy, but he was soon superseded by Massena. In 1806, he commanded under Joseph Buonaparte, in Naples, and in 1808, followed him to Spain. After the loss of the battle of Vittoria, he remained in retirement at Rouen. He was one of the first to declare in favor of Louis XVIII. in 1814. In 1816, the king of Sardinia sent him his portrait as a token of gratitude for his administration of Piedmont, in 1800. He belonged to the party of the liberal constitutionalists. He passed his latter days as governor of the hospital of invalids, where he was regarded with strong affection by the old soldiers. He was an able general, and a humane man. Though he had been so often defeated that he had acquired the epithet of “the anvil," yet Napoleon had great confidence in his judgment and courage. His defeats on several occasions were not at all owing to his own mismanagement or want of courage. His funeral was attended by a great concourse. Eulogies were pronounced by the duke of Treviso, and generals Fririon and Solignac.

EMANUEL RASK.

THIS distinguished individual was born near Odensee, in the island of Fuuen, in 1784. He studied at Copenhagen, afterwards lived several years in Ireland, and made scientific tours through Sweden, Finland, and Russia. In 1808, he received an appointment in the university library at Copenhagen, and made himself familiar with the most ancient sources of northern history. His introduction to a knowledge of the Icelandic or old language of the north; his Anglo Saxon grammar, translated into English by Thorpe; his examination into the origin of the Icelandic language, which received the prize from the Danish Society of Science; his edition of Bjorn Haldorsen's Icelandic Dictionary, and his valuable contributions to other works on the ancient northern languages, are proofs of great learning and industry. Before 1822, Rask had mastered twenty-five languages. In 1819, he undertook a tour through Russia to Persia, and thence sailed, 1820, for Bombay, and visited Ceylon, for the purpose of prosecuting his researches in comparative philology. While in the East, he collected 113 old and rare oriental manuscripts for the university of Copenhagen; among which were 33 relative to the ancient Persian literature, and particularly to the Zendavesta; 19 in

the Zend, and the others in the Pehlvi language. After his return to Copenhagen, professor Rask published a Spanish grammar, a Frisian gramınar, a Danish grammar for the use of Englishmen, and an Arabic grammar and text-book. He held the situation of keeper of the royal library and manuscripts at Copenhagen. He died of a pulmonary consumption near the close of 1833.

WILLAM WIRT.

MR. WIRT was born at Bladensburg, Maryland, on the 8th of November, 1772; and was the youngest of six children. His father (a Swiss) died while William was an infant; and his mother (a German) when he was eight years old. Being thus an orphan, he was received into the family of his uncle, who (with his wife) was also a native of Switzerland. He appears to have been kindly treated and encouraged by his aunt, who, divining his talents, had him continued at the grammar school at Georgetown, despite the pittance left for his education by his parents. Wirt was thence removed to a classical school in Charles county, Maryland, kept by Hatch Dent in the vestry house of Newport Church. From Dent's school, Wirt, (in his eleventh year,) removed to that kept by the Rev. James Hunt, a Presbyterian clergyman in Montgomery county, Maryland-of whose kindness, learning, and affability, his pupil ever retained a grateful remembrance. Wirt had free access to the library of his tutor, of which he made a free use. Having read that Pope constructed sentences and stanzas at twelve years of age, Wirt became as emulous to rival him, as Pope himself had similarly been stimulated to rival Cowley. While Wirt was at the school of Mr. Hunt, a circumstance occurred which controlled his destiny. Wirt with his school-mates was permitted occasionally to attend and hear the pleadings at the Montgomery Court House. Wirt became so fascinated with the eloquence displayed-particularly by a young gentleman, since well known as William H. Dorsey—that he suggested to his school-fellows to have a juvenile court of their own; of which he prepared a constitution and a body of laws, prefacing them in his report by an apologetic letter for himself. Under judge Edwards, Wirt laid the foundation of his knowledge of the law. He studied law also under William Hunt, the son of his old preceptor, and afterwards under Mr. Thomas Swann in the District of Columbia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1792. Immediately after his admission, he removed to Culpepper Court House, in Virginia, and commenced his practice, when 20 years of age. The first case in which he was engaged, arose from assault and battery, by three

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