self. Bred in the belief that the whole world is his debtor, and that he himself is called upon for no return, he conducts himself in every circumstance of his life with the most absolute selfishness. Feelings of commiseration and pity, as far as respects the sufferings of others, never enter into his heart. He will see an unhappy being perish on the road, or even at his own gate, if belonging to another caste, and will not stir to help him to a drop of water, though it were to save his life. There is no country on earth in which the sanction of an oath is less respected, and particularly amongst the Brahmans. That high caste is not ashamed to encourage falsehood, and even perjury, under certain circumstances, and to justify them openly; as vices, no doubt, when used for ordinary purposes, but as virtuous in the highest degree when employed for the advantage of the caste." This is identically the spirit of Dens' Theology, which allows the doing of acts perfectly wanting in moral rectitude for the good of the Church. The end sanctifies the means.

Let us pause for a moment to observe how sedulously we have encouraged how reverently propitiated Caste in India; nor have we been less tender of this monstrosity in Ireland. By the regulations of the Indian government of 1814, native Christians were debarred from filling any office of respectability. A Sepoy was actually dismissed from the army, in consequence of embracing Christianity. He was a naik, or corporal—a man of high caste, who, under the influence of Mr. Fisher, the clergyman, renounced Hindooism. On the report of the commanding officer, Government, to honour native prejudices, absurdly and wickedly disgraced him, by removing him from his regiment, although they still allowed him his pay. The same base system of truckling to superstition caused the cashiering of an officer on garrison duty, in one of our military possessions in Europe, because he declined to salute the Host on its passage near his quarters. The civil power, which with us is supreme, acted treacherously to its free constitution, by authorizing the military power to override the conscience of its subaltern agent.

1

In India-as, indeed, was the case in England during the reign of Mary, and in Spain during that of the Holy Inquisition-the professional caste of murderers is a religious body.

"Their practice is to insinuate themselves into the society of a traveller whom they know to be possessed of property; such an one they accompany until they have an opportunity of throwing a noose round his neck, or of administering a stupifying drug.

1 See Irving, p. 35; Heber's Journey, ii. 280; Shore's India, ii. 460..

INDIAN AND ITALIAN THUGS.

39

He is then murdered without blood being shed, and so skilfully buried, that a long time usually elapses before his fate is suspected. These proceedings are supposed to be particularly pleasing to a deity under whose tutelage the whole caste is supposed to live. Like the banditti and priests of the middle ages, who made supplications for success, and vowed a portion of the spoil to the Madonna, they pay and present votive offerings to the goddess Bhawani." 1

The same horrible cruelty and blind devotion is practised to this day in Italy, where Christianity has been paganized, and its true principles buried beneath a mass of ritualistic worship and absurd legends. The following account of a murderer's mode of uniting piety, cruelty, and assassination, is terribly descriptive of the results of that dark system of religious teaching—of that blind leading of the blind, which is but too prevalent in those parts of Europe which are most thoroughly papalized :—" While one of the murderers was compressing the throat of the poor woman, another was saying the prayers of the dying over her, actually invoking the Almighty at the very moment they were destroying His image! The awful deed done, and the valuable effects plundered, in due time the murderers repaired to the 'confessional,' where they were sentenced to do penance, to give one portion of the plunder for masses for the soul of the deceased, a second portion for carità' to the Church, and a third portion, I suppose, they were allowed to keep for themselves—and then absolution!"

The Thugs went on their adventures in large gangs; and two or more were commonly united in the course of an expedition, in the perpetration of many murders. Every man shared in the booty, according to the rank he held in the gang, or the part he took in the murders; and the rank of every man, and the part he took generally, or in any particular murder, were usually well known to all. "From among these gangs, when arrested, we found the evidence we required for their conviction, or the means of tracing it among the families and friends of their victims, or with persons to whom the plundered property had been disposed of, and in the graves to which the victims had been consigned." The following is an instance of their terrible subtlety :— A stout Mogul officer of noble bearing and singularly handsome countenance, on his way from the Punjab to Oude, crossed the Ganges at Gurmucktesur Ghát, near Meeruth, to pass through Mooradabad and Bareilly. He was mounted on a fine Toorkee horse, and attended by his khidmutgar, butler, and groom. Soon

1 Irving, in loco.

after crossing the river, he fell in with a small party of welldressed and modest-looking men, going the same_road. They accosted him in a respectful manner, and attempted to enter into conversation with him. He had heard of Thugs, and told them to be off. They smiled at his idle suspicions, and tried to remove them, but all in vain; the Mogul was determined; they saw his nostrils swelling with indignation, took their leave, and followed slowly. The next morning he overtook the same number of men, but of a different appearance, all Mussulmans. They accosted him in the same respectful manner, talked of the danger of the road, and of the necessity of keeping together, and taking advantage of the protection of any mounted gentleman that happened to be going the same way. The Mogul officer said not a word in reply, resolved to have no companions on the road. They persisted-his nostrils began again to swell, and putting his hand to his sword, he bade them all be off, or he would have their heads from their shoulders. He had a bow and quiver full of arrows over his shoulders, a brace of loaded pistols in his waist-belt, and a sword by his side; and was altogether a very formidable-looking cavalier. In the evening another party, that lodged in the same surae, became very intimate with the butler and groom. They were going the same road; and as the Mogul overtook them in the morning, they made their bows respectfully, and began to enter into conversation with their two friends, the groom and the butler, who were coming up behind. The Mogul again bade the strangers to be off. The groom and butler interceded; for their master was a grave, sedate man, and they wanted companions. All would not do, and the strangers fell in the rear. The next day, when they had got to the middle of an extensive and uninhabited plain, the Mogul in advance, and his servants a few hundred yards behind, he came up to a party of six poor Mussulmans, weeping by the side of a dead companion. They were soldiers from Lahore, on their way to Lucknow, worn down by fatigue in their anxiety to see their wives and children once more, after a long and painful service. Their companion, the hope and prop of his family, had sunk under the fatigue, and they had made a grave for him; but they were poor unlettered men, and unable to repeat the funeral service from the holy Koran-would his highness but perform this last office for them, he would no doubt find his reward in this world and the next. The Mogul dismounted-the body had been placed in its proper position, with its head towards Mecca. A carpet was spread-the Mogul took off his bow and his quiver, then his pistols and sword, and placed them on the ground near the body; called for water, and washed

his feet, hands, and face, that he might not pronounce the holy words in an unclean state. He then knelt down, and began to repeat the funeral service in a clear, loud voice. Two of the poor soldiers knelt by him, one on each side, in silence; the other four went off a few paces, to beg the butler and groom would not come so near as to interrupt the good man at his devotions. All being ready, one of the four, in a low undertone, gave the shiraee (signal), the handkerchiefs were thrown over their necks; and in a few minutes all three-the Mogul and his servants—were dead, and lying in the grave in the usual manner, the head of one at the feet off the one below him. All the parties they had met on the road belonged to a gang of Jumaldehee Thugs, of the kingdom of Oude. In despair of being able to win the Mogul's confidence in the usual way, and determined to have the money and jewels which they knew he carried with him, they had adopted this plan of disarming him; dug the grave by the side of the road, in the open plain, and made a handsome young Mussulman of the party the dead soldier. The Mogul, being a very stout man, died almost without a struggle, as is usually the case with such; and his two servants made no resistance.1

Nor was India less afflicted with gangs of professional poisoners. The impunity with which this crime is everywhere perpetrated, and its consequent increase in every part of India, are among the greatest evils with which the country is at this time afflicted. These poisoners are spread all over India, and are as numerous over the Bombay and Madras presidencies as over that of Bengal. There is no road free from them; and throughout India there must be many hundreds who gain their subsistence by this trade alone.

They put on all manner of disguises to suit their purpose; and as they prey chiefly upon the poorer sort of travellers, they require to destroy the greater number of lives, to make up their incomes. A party of two or three poisoners have very often succeeded in destroying another of eight or ten travellers with whom they have journeyed for some days, by pretending to give them a feast on the celebration of the anniversary of some family event.

Sometimes an old woman, or man, will manage the thing alone, by gaining the confidence of travellers, and getting near the cooking-pots while they go aside, or when employed to bring the flour from the bazaar. The poison is put into the flour, or the pot, as opportunity offers.2

1 Sleeman, in loco.

2 Sleeman's Rambles of an Indian Official.

Man has drawn his contracted picture of Christianity in his own religion. There, with all the gravity of true ignorance, he subscribes his "Homo fecit,"--just as if he were some god-like artist, transferring to his canvass the light of heaven, shedding its beams upon the glorious Angel of Truth, standing in the centre of a new creation. Miserable daub!-that prominent figure is SELF.

"Religion is the highest divine symbol of unity, whether in the household, the tribe, the nation, or the state. But to appropriate that which belongs to God is the very essence of all selfishness, the true fall of man, which would fain be master of all goodness and truth, not their voluntary servant." Had not Bible Christianity been crushed by the Papal power in France, the first great Revolution of that country could never have taken place; for vital religion would have given a gradual and a rational freedom to the main body of the people, as it has done in this country; and, shorn of its offensive attributes and tyrannical privileges, the nobility of France would still have been in existence, occupying a corresponding position to that institute in our own country. It is for lack of this genuine Christianity, that the nobility and church were swept away as with a whirlwind. The Christianity of the Bible would have taught the people how to struggle for their freedom temperately; how to win it well, and to enjoy it truly. It would have taught that nobility, as it has taught ours, how to yield, and yet how to preserve its institutions. The nobleman brings a safeguard and an ornament to his rank in his Christianity; but that must be of a sterling cast-it must be of the soul, not of decent externalism, nor of pompous ecclesiastical display. In him the commons recognize the highest motives for usefulness; he is humble, because he is a Christian; and his humility is the brotherhood, not of courtesy, but of piety.

The more truly Christian is he,-in the highest and purest sense of Christianity, the Christianity of the heart, the less invidious does his position appear, and the less jealous are the commons of his honours in him they recognize something more dignified than an earthly title-they discern a citizen of heaven. Individual Christianity takes a man clean away from his rotten prop of fellowman,—whether he be called secular or spiritual, labourer or prince, merchant or priest, and it compels him to direct communication with his God. That is the true test of his Christianity. The individual sheep is not made healthy by associating with the flock; -it is the soundness of the individual sheep that makes the soundness of the flock. Just so, it is as absurd to say that the aggregate

1 Chevalier Bünsen's Signs of the Times.