THE GENERAL BAPTISTS IN
LOUGHBOROUGH, AND THEIR
TREATMENT.

of the jury at the sessions. Mr. Peck | THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF was, therefore, directed to indict several of the principal offenders at the Crown office. But though notices of this were sent to the parties, the persecution did not abate. They treated the letters with contempt and ostentatiously tearing them in pieces, trampled them under-foot in the streets. The people

at Barton continued to be treated in

the most outrageous manner: their persecutors, elated with the victory they had obtained, gave a loose to their passions, and deemed it a virtue to harass them by every means they could employ.

ABOUT the year 1753, Mr. John Whyatt, of Barton, preached in the dwellinghouse of Mr. William Cheatle, who had kindly opened his doors for the purpose. So few of the inhabitants were friendly to the cause, that it was with difficulty five signatures could be obtained to a request for licence for the place of worship. Yet a considerable number of the inhabitants attended, and many heard with seriousness, At length the Assizes approached, with an avowed intent to ridicule though the greatest number went and regular citations were sent to the and persecute. The mob collected persons indicted. This roused them round the house, in the time of to reflection; and, perceiving the dan- service, and endeavoured, by clamour gerous situation in which their excesses and sometimes by the beating of drums had placed them, they sunk into abject to interrupt the attention of the hearers. despondency.* The most submissive Often they proceeded further, and threw applications were made, and the most stones and dirt through the windows. moving intreaties used, to induce those, Once they seized a woman, as she came whom they had so cruelly abused, to out of the meeting, and dragged her stop the proceedings, and not suffer along a deep kennel, full of mire and the cause to come to a trial. The filth, by the hair of her head, reviling Barton friends, wishing only to enjoy her continually with the epithets of their native rights without interruption Raven and Methodist. The ministers enconsented at last to drop the prosecu- deavoured to check these violent protion, on condition that their persecutors ceedings by an appeal to the magiswould pay all the expences which had, trates, but a witness accidentally misfrom the first, been occasioned by their taking the date of one these atrocities, violence. As many witnesses had been this slip of memory was made the preexamined, and several eminent counsel tence of rejecting their appeal, and retained, the costs amounted to a con- their enemies renewed their assaults siderable sum, and fell heavy on seven with increased fury. The rabble color eight of the farmers. Yet the terms lected round the door of the court, and were considered as generous, and re- followed the friends of religion with ceived by the parties concerned with triumphant insult through the town, gratitude, and all further violence was so that they escaped with difficulty to as effectually checked as it could have their own houses. Foiled in this atbeen had the cause proceeded, and tempt, they employed an attorney to large damages been awarded against seek redress in the higher courts, who sent a letter to the most active of the persecutors, stating the probable consequences of their violent conduct. An intimation of this nature from a person of character put a stop to personal insults, and the enemies of religion confined themselves to hooting, shouting, and similar expressions of ill will. These harmless effusions of re

the offenders.

When the attorney's clerk went to Nailstone to present the citations, most of the persons to whom they were addressed were gone to a fair at Bosworth. The clerk followed; and found them in the midst of their diversions. One young man, of whom he was in quest, was preparing to entertain the mob with a burlesque imitation of a Methodist sermon; and, having mounted a stool, was com

posing his countenance to the requisite gravity, when the clerk stept up to him, and, presenting the citation, said, "Here, my lad, I'll furnish you with a text." But, alas ! the mock parson could not strained malice were despised and negread. He was, however, soon informed of the lected-the ministers continued their contents of the paper. This closed his frolic; he

instantly descended, and sneaked away in silence; labours, and the cause daily gained thus becoming himself an object of derision to the ground. laughing spectators.

Science and Art.

DISCOVERY OF A NEW SUBSTANCE FERTILIZING ACTION OF GYPSUM.CALLED AZULENE.-At a meeting of M. Deherain, in a paper read before the Academy of Science in Paris, M. the French Academy, has given the Piesse announced from London that in results of some new studies on this distilling essence of camomile frac-much-discussed subject. He considers tionally, he had obtained a new sub- that these experiments fully prove that stance which he calls azulene, on ac- gypsum acts by liberating potash, and count of its perfectly blue colour. He that they explain why wood-ashes has found it also in other essential oils, are often substituted for plaster with and attributes to it the pale green hue advantage, as they afford a direct supthey display when recently distilled, a ply of potash. The utility of sowing tint they soon lose in consequence of plaster on the growing crops of legumithe predominance of yellow caused by nose is this, that the potash is rendered the gradual oxygenation of the resins. soluble at the time when the plant can be taken up, and is not washed out of the soil as it might be if the latter were not occupied by vegetation.

OIL-SPRINGS IN RUSSIA.-A district has been discovered in Russia of similar formation to that of the oil producing regions of Pennsylvania, and other parts of America.

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF A PORTRAIT OF POPE AND A PICTURE BY GUIDO.-In making some repairs in an old family mansion at Gloucester which belonged to the Guise's, and now used as a school of art, a fine portrait of Pope was discovered behind a niche

A NEW INSTRUMENT, called a bathoreometre, has been invented by Messrs. Ludwig and Kromeyer, by which thicknesses of substances such as hair, spider's webs, &c., may be determined with exactness to the twelve-millionth which had been bricked up, and also a part of an inch. picture, said to be by Guido, entitled DISCOVERY OF A GREAT WATERFALL." The Temptation." -A waterfall, entitled to the distinction of being called the greatest in the world, has been discovered in the valley of the Snake, or Lewis Fork, of Columbia. The entire volume of Snake River pours over a sheer precipice one hundred and ninety-eight feet high, and is therefore thirty-eight feet higher than Niagara.

A COMET is now approaching the earth, and will be visible early this month. Astronomers think that it is the comet which was seen in 1810. It will be eighteen millions of miles distant from us on the first of this month. A NEW MINERAL has been discovered in the basin of the Yarra, Australia. It is known as the sapphirine, and is harder than the topaz. It will be chiefly useful to lapidaries.

CARL WERNER'S FINE SERIES OF DRAWINGS OF JERUSALEM AND THE HOLY PLACES, are to be reproduced in chromolithography by Messrs. Hanhart & Co.

MR. G. M. WARD, R.A., has an admirable little picture of the late W. M. Thackeray in his study, which is now being photographed.

A NEW APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY has been made by Mr. W. S. Sherras, of Aberdeen. Paper photographs are transferred to china. The portraits are quite perfect. We may expect to see tea-services adorned with the likeness of our friends.

PRINCE CONSORT'S TOMB AT FROGMORE.-The very costly bronze castings for this tomb are being executed by the celebrated French firm of Barbedienne.

FLAXMAN'S MODEL OF ROBERT BURNS has been presented to the Burns Monument, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, by Colonel W. Burns, son of the poet.

MR. HOLMAN HUNT is painting a picture representing the scene on London Bridge on the night of the illuminations in honour of the arrival of the Princess of Wales.

MDLE. ROSA BONHEUR, the celebrated French animal painter is now busy with a large picture intended as a companion to "The Horse Fair."

WILLIAM BEHNES, the sculptor, is dead. He possessed natural talent sufficient to have raised him to the highest place in his profession.

Literature.

KHONDISTAN AND THE

KHONDS.*

turned to no account. Oranges and lemons of an inferior quality are pro

THIS is a most welcome book. Written duced, and a coarse sort of tobacco. The by the gentleman who was the chief people, while not the best farmers in agent in suppressing human sacrifices in the world, usually cultivate more Khondistan, it supplies us with infor- than is needed to supply their own mation which we, in common with every wants, the surplus being bartered to lover of the Khond mission, were anxious travelling merchants, or carried to fairs to obtain. The simple unadorned narra- and markets in the plains. tive of "personal service" enchains the attention from the very first. We share with the worthy General his toils, his dangers, and his victories. The firmness, patience, and admirable tact displayed throughout the thirteen years of arduous labour at length bring their appropriate reward. He had rescued in that period fifteen hundred human victims from death, had secured the oath of each chief in the numerous villages of Khondistan to abstain for ever from human sacrifices, and has now the satisfaction of looking upon this barbarous rite as extinct. This is a work worth living for, and one that will hand down the General's name with distinguished honour to future generations.

The inhabitants of the hills are called Khonds, Gonds, and Sourahs, each tribe possessing a distinct language. The Khond was reduced to writing by the late Captain Frye. The people are claimed as subjects by some forty or fifty puppet rajahs who live on the plains, and are regarded as a remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. They are darker in complexion than the Oreahs, are well-formed and agile. The women are short, and General Campbell thinks repulsive in features. The dress of the men is simple enough: a few yards of coarse native cotton cloth bound round the loins, ornamented with a separate piece striped with red, and dangling down behind like a tail. Their Khondistan is a great chain of hills thick black hair is twisted round their which stretches from the Mahanuddy heads and fastened in the front by a river to the Godavery. It comprises knot. In this the Khond places his about one thousand square miles. Many pipe, his comb, and other little domestic portions are almost inaccessible. The requisites. He generally carries a long rugged sides of the mountains are staff. When armed for war, his toilet covered with the common bamboo and is much more elaborate. A crest of the damur-tree. Coarse grass is also feathers surmounts a showy turban. abundant. Partridges, peacocks, junglefowls, tigers, panthers, bears, and wild buffaloes are found everywhere.

The

His weapons are a bow and arrows, and a most formidable battle-axe with a blade in two divisions. The dress of "When once the summit is reached, the the women consists of a cloth fastened change from the low country is very strik- round the loins and extending to the ing. The eye beholds a well-watered and knees. The breasts are left bare. Brass open country of table-land, producing ear-rings, and often nose-rings, are luxuriantly rice, oil-seeds, turmeric, and worn both by men and women. sometimes large crops of dhall (a sort of latter also delight in brass and showy pea) and millet. Of the science of agricul- glass bead necklaces, and in heavy brass ture the people know absolutely nothing; bands round the arms. Neither men they exhaust the soil with unintermitted nor women are over-clean. The men crops, until the land is barren, then they are great smokers, and often befuddle abandon their fields, and clear fresh jun- themselves, especially at a hunting party, gle for future crops." a wedding, or before a fight, with a liquor made from rice and from mabwa flowers. Their musical instruments are of the rudest description, and their singing is wild and not unpleasant even to European ears.

Cotton-shrubs are common, but are

* A Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years Service amongst the Wild Tribes of Khondistan for the Suppression of Human Sacrifices. By MajorGeneral John Campbell, C.B. London: Hurst & lackett, 1864.

Touching Story of a Khond Woman.

The Khonds never marry women from their own villages. Some of their marriage customs are extremely odd. Here is an account of one:

women.

"On one occasion, whilst taking an evening ride, I heard loud cries proceed from a village close at hand. Fearing some serious quarrel I rode to the spot, and there saw a man bearing away upon his back something enveloped in an ample covering of scarlet cloth. He was surrounded by twenty or thirty young fellows, and by them protected from the desperate attacks made on him by a party of young On seeking an explanation of this novel scene, I was told that the man had just been married, and his precious burden was his blooming bride, whom he was conveying to his own village. Her youthful friends, as it appears is the custom, were seeking to regain possession of her, and hurled stones and bamboos at the head of the devoted bridegroom, until he reached the confines of his own village. Then the tables were turned; the bride was fairly won, and off her young friends scampered, screaming and laughing, but not relaxing their speed until they reached their own village."

61

from their depredations in the form of a Pulta Bagh. Some of the people were convinced of the imposture, but the majority were disappointed that the supposed witches were not burnt or drowned."

To the south-west of Goomsur, where our missionaries are stationed, lies the principality of Sooradah, in which female infanticide was universal. Even male infanticide was not uncommon. birth of a child the astrologer-priest was At the called in, and, after certain absurd ceremonies, decreed its life or death. Female infanticide was avowedly prompted by poverty; but male infanticide sprung out of a fear lest, if the child should be spared after the dessawry had ordered its death, all kinds of evil should come upon the village, the cattle suffer murrain, and drought reduce their lands to sterility.

"The living male infant, doomed to die, was placed in a new earthen vessel, the mouth of which was closed with a lid; on it were placed some wild flowers, and a small quantity of rice. The vessel was marked with alternate vertical streaks of of the compass which the astrologer had black and red, then removed to that point. indicated, and there buried. After this, a fowl was sacrificed over the spot which marked the infant's grave."

thanks to the energy and skill of General This inhuman practice is now abolished, Campbell.

of a Khond woman. She and three chilA touching story is told of the heroism

General Campbell quietly exposes the ridiculous account of the Khond my thology supplied to a certain credulous Scotchman by two lying natives. He refers to the different modes of sacrificing the Meriahs in various principalities, and calls special attention to the belief of the Khonds in Pulta Bagh, or tiger-turners, that is, women who profess to have the power to change themselves into tigers whensoever they please.dren, all Meriahs, were taken from a vilA case of this last superstition came under the General's own eye. A Beniah, one of the inhabitants of the slopes of the mountains, complained to him that his son had been carried off by two women who had thus transformed themselves. The women, with the greatest impudence, said the accusation was true. General Campbell promised them their liberty if they would transform themselves into tigers in his presence. This they coolly agreed to do, if taken to a neighbouring jungle.

with composure and even with pride the lage in Ryabiji. Accustomed to regard fact that her children were destined to be lish camp affected a total change in her sacrificed, a short residence in the Engsentiments. The better feelings of a mother's heart were suddenly reawakened. She now made known that about six years old. She earnestly beone child had been left behind, a son certain death; but very reluctantly, on sought the General to rescue him from account of the lateness of the season "I ordered them to be taken; when, tile temper of the people in that region (the rains had commenced), and the hosseeing no mode of escape, they threw themselves on the ground imploring mercy he was compelled to refuse, promising, occasioned by a recent rescue of victims, and pardon, and confessing the imposture. They stated that they were poor, and lived however, an expedition early in the next by imposing on the credulity of the vil-season. This did not satisfy the anxious lagers, who supplied them with food and mother. Her heart yearned after the clothing whenever they chose to demand missing boy more than toward the three it, in order to secure themselves and cattle children now safe. One day she dis

for a time in Sooradah. A recent reviewer has placed the reference to our brethren and to these French priests in juxtaposition, and has then drawn an inference unfavourable to the Khond missionaries. The only excuse we can offer for this is,-that the reviewer did not find all the facts of both cases in General Campbell's book. We will supply the omission. First, then, as to our brethren. Our missionaries have never been in the habit of remaining at their stations during the whole of the year, but have always made itinerating in the cold season an essential part of their work. The Khond missionaries are now following precisely the same plan of operations. The change effected by General Campbell's mission to the Khonds has been so great, that thousands of the hill tribes are now within easy reach from Russell Condah. The

appeared. Alone, on foot, with a mere handful of rice for subsistence, or such chance roots as she might find on the way, she resolved to make the rescue herself. By day she crouched in the forest, and by night, under frightful tempests of rain, and amidst the greatest perils from snakes, wild beasts, and even wilder men, she sought the village where her son was kept. Three days she watched from the neighbouring woods. On the fourth, taking advantage of the absence of all the villagers in their fields, she rushed in, seized her son, and fled with all the strength which desperate resolution lends to courage. When she reached the camp on the fortieth day after her disappearance, she was worn to a skeleton. The strongest man would have sunk under sufferings borne by that heroic woman. But her son was safe that was recompense more than enough. The English Government neighbouring fairs and markets, owing thought otherwise. Both mother and children were well cared for during the remainder of their lives.

One word in defence of our brethren who have recently settled at Russell Condah. General Campbell is warmly interested in our Orissa mission, refers in kindly terms to some of our missionaries, and quotes a letter from Mrs. Stubbins detailing the progress of the Khond victims he had placed under her care. He also expresses his "hearty wish" for the success of the Khond mission, and has already shown in the most liberal way the genuineness of his sympathy. In the volume before us he thus writes:

"I regret that these gentlemen (our two missionaries) have resolved to dwell in the low country, and expect the Khonds to come to them; but I trust this is only preparatory to a lengthy annual residence in the hill tracts, and constant visits to the hill villages. Khondistan may be traversed in winter with comparative impunity; and I hope that the missionaries will acclimatise themselves during this season; for, without their personal presence and constant supervision, the hill tribes are not likely to become converts, and certainly will not remain so, should they be induced to profess Christianity." In another part of the volume the General refers with deserved eulogy to the self-denying conduct of some French Roman Catholic missionaries who settled

to improved roads and increased security, are frequented by Khonds from reremote districts. Here were fields of labour on which our brethren at once entered. When both are acclimatised, and sufficiently acquainted with the language, they will boldly brave the dangers of that unhealthy region which, according to General Campbell's own showing, twice sent him as a feeble invalid to the Cape, wasted the strength of every European in his corps, killed some invaluable officers, and greatly decimated his ordinary forces.

The sequel of the Papist mission should also be known. All the priests were stricken with fever. One of our own missionaries cheerfully placed his Two died, bungalow at their service. and the rest, so it is rumoured, speedily left that part of the country. They never learnt the Khond language. No pains were ever taken to instruct the people. Scores of Khonds were sprinkled with holy water, decked out with brass medals, told not to eat meat on Friday, and were then pronounced to be Christians. Some of our own native converts bearing that there were Christians at Sooradab, anxiously sought them out, but were sorely dissappointed to find that these so-called converts in no wise differed from the heathen around them except that they were decked out with the brass ornaments and crucifixes given them by the priests.