Bishop  Heber,  though  disposed  to  think  very  favourably  of  the
Hindoos  in  general,  as  constitutionally  kind-hearted,  indus-
trious, sober,  and  peaceable,  thinks  it;  very  likely,  that  a  son  who
wished  to  get  rid  of  his  mother,  might  carry  her  to  the  stake,
under  pretence  of  a  suttee*.
*  Of  the  reasoning  by  which  the  pretended  system  of  non-inter-
ference is  defended,  and  of  the  enlightened  Christian  spirit  of  its  ad-


1  pile  of  her  deceased  husband.  But  what  judgement  should  we  pro-
1  nounce  on  the  Hindoo  who  (if  any  of  our  institutions  admitted  the
*  parallel)  should  forcibly  pretend  to  stand  between  a  Christian  and
'  the  hope  of-etemal  salvation  ?  And  shall  we  not  hold  him  to  be  a
'  driveller  in  politics  and  morals,  a  fanatic  in  religion,  and  a  pretender
<  in  humanity,  who  would  forcibly  wrest  this  hope  from  the  Hindoo
«  widow  ?'  Wilks's  South  of  India,  Vol.  I.  p.  499.  1810.  The  at-
tack on  '  Mr.  Fowler  Buxton '  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for  advocat-
ing the  abolition  of  suttees,  was  in  precisely  the  same  spirit  of  imbecile
arrogance.
