THE name of Mr. Ward is well known among the Baptist missionaries, who, for zeal and usefulness, have of late been so justly distinguished among the idolaters of India. 50 stition, which has no parallel in the history of tribes the most savage and barbarous. A female is despised as soon as she is born: she comes into the world amidst the frowns of her parents and friends, disappointed that the child is On returning to England, and sur- not a boy. Every mother among the veying the various privileges and bless- tribe of Rajpoots puts her female child ings enjoyed by his countrymen, it was to death as soon as born. While I was natural for him to contrast them with in Bengal, I was informed of the case the barbarities he had been called to of a Rajpoot who had spared one of his witness, during his long absence from daughters, and she lived till she attainhome. In his several discourses, while ed the age when India girls are marmaking an appeal to the judgments riageable. A girl in the house of a Rajand feelings of his hearers, Mr. Ward poot was, however, so extraordinary a gave in detail, to large and deeply affect-circumstance, that no parent chose to ed audiences, particularly in Liverpool, permit his son to marry her. The faa recital of facts that filled every mind ther then became alarmed for her chaswith horror. From these, the impres-tity and the honour of his family, and sion that was made will not be easily he therefore took her aside one day, effaced. But as there are multitudes and with a hatchet cut her to pieces! within the circulation of the Imperial These are the circumstances into Magazine, who had not the opportu- which your sex enter into life in Brinity of hearing from his own lips an tish India. account of the melancholy incidents, we rejoice in being able to furnish, from his pen, a faithful narration of cruelties, which cannot be too widely diffused, nor too deeply deplored. On board the Ship Nestor, for New York. HAVING heard, in passing through Li- To the Ladies of Liverpool, and of the United Kingdom. In childhood and youth they have no education, no cultivation of any kind whatever. There is not a single girls' school in all India; and the mother being herself entirely unlettered, and being the devoted victim of a dark and cruel superstition, is utterly incapable of improving her child. The first days of the girl are therefore spent in an inanity which prepares her for a life doomed to be spent in superstition and vice. In the age of comparative childhood she is united in marriage without any knowledge of, or having ever seen her husband: when they meet together for the first time, they are bound together for life. Thousands who are thus married in a state of childhood, lose their husbands without having ever lived with them, and are doomed to a life of widowhood; for the law forbids them to re-marry. Parents in some cases marry fifty or sixty daughters to one Bramhun, that the family may be raised to honour by a marriage relation to this man. These females never live with the husband, but in the houses of their own parents, or they leave the houses in which they have been thus sacrificed for the supposed honour of the family, and enter the abodes of in THERE are in Hindoost'han seventyfive millions of your sex who can neither read nor write, and thirty millions of these are British subjects. In every country not ameliorated by Christianity, the state of women has always been most deplorable; but the Hindoo legislators have absolutely made their acquisition of the knowledge of letters a curse, and they are by a positive pro-famy and ruin. hibition denied all access to their Scrip- Supposing the female, however, to tures. Being thus degraded, even by have been united to a person who really their Sacred Writings, women in India becomes attached to her, what a moare in a state of ignorance and super-ther, without the knowledge of the 51 Cruelties in India. 52 But horrors still deeper are connected with the state of female society in India. The English magistrates in the presidency of Bengal, in their annual official returns to the Calcutta government, state, that in the year 1817(three years ago,) seven hundred and six women, widows, were either burnt alive or buried alive with the dead bodies of their husbands, in that part of British India. Is there any thing like this in the whole records of time? Have fires like these, and so numerous, ever been kindled any where else on earth-or graves like these ever been opened? Two females roasted alive every day in one part of British India alone! At noon-day, and in the presence of numerous spectators, the poor widow, ensnared and drawn to the funeral pile, is tied to the dead body, pressed down on the faggots by strong levers, and burnt alive, her screams amidst the flames being drowned by shouts and music. Amidst the spectators is her own son, her first born, who, tre alphabet! Wholly unacquainted with mankind, and with all the employments of females in a civilized country; unable either to make, to mend, or to wash the clothes of her household! She never sits to eat with her husband, but prepares his food, waits upon him, and partakes of what he leaves. If a friend, of the other sex, calls upon her husband, she retires. She is veiled, or goes in a covered palanquin if she leaves the house. She never mixes in public companies. She derives no knowledge from the other sex, except from the stories to which she may listen from the mouth of a religious mendicant. She is, in fact, a mere animal kept for burden or for slaughter in the house of her husband. A case lately occurred in Calcutta of a girl being burnt alive on the funeral pile with the dead body of the youth with whom she was that day to have been married. You will be prepared now, Ladies, to expect that such a system of mental darkness will have rendered the sex, in India, the devoted victims of ido-mendous idea! has set fire to the pile, latry: and such victims no other country, however savage, however benighted, can boast. What must be the state ot the female mind when millions are found throwing the children of their vows into the sea; when a guard of Hindoo soldiers are necessary to prevent mothers throwing their living children into the jaws of the alligators, these mothers standing and watching the animal while it crushes the bones, tears the flesh, and drinks the blood of their own offspring! How deplorable the condition of your sex, when super-knees, as she sits in the centre of a deep stition thus extinguishes every sensibility of the female, and every feeling of the mother, and makes her more savage than the tiger which howls in the forest, which always spares and cherishes its own offspring. and watches the progress of the flames which are to consume the living mother to ashes, the mother who fed him from her breast, and dandled him on her knees, and who once looked up to him as the support of the declining days of herself and his father. I have seen three widows thus burnt alive, and could have witnessed many more such spectacles, had they not been too much for my feelings. Other widows are buried alive: here the female takes the dead body upon her grave, and her children and relations, who have prepared the grave, throw in the earth around her: two of these descend into the grave and trample the earth with their feet around the body of the widow. She sits an unremonstrating spectator of the process: the earth rises higher and higher around her; at length it reaches the head, when the remaining earth is thrown with haste upon her, and these children and relations mount the grave, and trample At the calls of superstition, many females immolate themselves by a voluntary death in the sacred rivers of India. A friend of mine, at the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges, at Allahabad, in one morning, saw, from his own window, sixteen females, with pans of wa-upon the head of the expiring victim !! ter fastened to their sides, sink themselves in the river, a few bubbles of air arising only to the surface of the water after they were gone down. The drowning of so many kittens in England would excite more horror here, than the drowning of sixteen of your own sex in India! O ye British mothers-ye British widows, to whom shall these desolate beings look? In whose ears shall these thousands of orphans cry, losing father and mother in one day, if not to you? Where shall we go? In what corner of this miserable world, full of the habitations of cruelty, shall we find female 53 Historical Observations respecting Liverpool. 54 putation, is not a town of any considerable antiquity. Within the memory of many now living, its appearance has assumed a new aspect, and houses and streets now cover an extensive tract, which, within the reach of their recollection, was formerly clothed with verdure. Emerging thus from comparative obscurity into affluence and power, its origin has been but indistinctly marked; and its progressive movements from insignificance to wealth and influence, have partially escaped the notice of its merchants, to whose industrious activity, and successful speculations, it is chiefly indebted for its aggrandise society like this-widows and orphans Schools must be commenced-know- OBSERVATIONS HISTORICAL AND DE- THE large, populous, and flourishing Liverpool however, notwithstanding its long-established and increasing re On the origin of its name, different opinions have been entertained; and from the variations which occur in the orthography of the term Liverpool, its etymology, which perhaps was formerly distinct and unambiguous, is now rendered equivocal and uncertain. Liver, the former part of this name, is said by some to have been derived from a species of Liverwort, which in some places abounded on its coasts. Others have contended that a particular species of water-fowl, denominated Liver or Lever, frequenting a collection of waters, which in ancient times was called the Pool, gave birth to this branch of its name. To favour this etymology, it is urged that the crest of the town-arms exhibits a bird, bearing this appellation. This fact, however, has been doubted by others, and powerful reasons have been assigned to destroy the application, but without substituting any thing more plausible in its stead. The latter part of the term appears evidently to have been derived from local circumstances. It seems to be admitted by universal consent, that the site now occupied by the Old Dock was formerly a pool, to which the tide flowed through Byrom-street, Whitechapel, and Paradise-street. On the border of this pool the town originally stood; and the primitive appellation is still preserved in the name of Poollane. But from what source soever the former term has been derived, there is decisive evidence that the compound was in existence so early as the days of Henry II., for in a charter bearing date 1172, it is said to be a place 55 Historical Observations respecting Liverpool. "which the Lyrpul men call Litherpul." Since that charter, the name has been occasionally written Liverpull, Lyvrepol, Lyvrepole, Leerpool, Leverpool, and Liverpool. The antiquity of this town is not less uncertain than the etymology of its name. Ambition affects to trace it up to the days of the Romans; but this claim is disowned by reason and common sense. The situation of the town was totally without the range of any Roman roads hitherto discovered, and no monument of Roman greatness has ever been found, to give the least countenance to the supposition. Nor is it absolutely certain that Liverpool had any distinct existence, even so recently as the Norman conquest. The survey of the kingdom, which was taken as soon as William had secured the throne, was registered in a book called Domesday, which is still extant. But although, in this venerable record, mention is made of all the lands in England, together with the names of their respective owners; and notwithstanding Everton, Formby, and Litherland, appear under their respective appellations, the name of Liverpool is unknown. The tract of land now occupied by Liverpool and its vicinity, seems to have been noticed in Domesday book, as Esmedune or Swedune. It is described as 66 one carucate of land worth thirty-two pence." Smethorn or Smedone-lane, has probably derived its name from this tract of land. 56 and execute his commands. These circumstances might suddenly have augmented the number of the cottages and inhabitants, and thus have given commencement to those movements which have raised Liverpool to its present state of commercial prosperity and glory. That a castle did exist on the elevated ground which rises between Lordstreet and the harbour, is attested by the most decisive proofs; and although its visible vestiges are done away, the name still survives in the names of Castle-street and Castle-ditch. By whom this castle was erected, is a point on which historians have also been divided. Movery asserts, that it was built by King John; but he adduces no authority in support of this assertion. Camden on the contrary, who wrote about the year 1586, expressly ascribes the building of this castle to Roger of Poictiers; and he also adds, that the wardenship of the castle was bestowed by the Earl on Vivian de Molyneaux, whose descendants still hold estates in the vicinity, and in this family it continued so late as the 30th of Elizabeth. In 1704, the castle was granted to the town at the rent of £6. 13s. 4d. the constable's salary; and about this time the parish received a rent from the corporation for some houses in it. About ten years afterwards, the parish conceded its claims to the corporation; in consequence of which arrangement, the remains of the castle were taken down, and St. It appears from Domesday, that all George's church was erected on the those lands which in Lancashire lie be-ground which this memorial of antitween the Ribble and the Mersey, were quity formerly occupied. granted to Roger of Poictiers, an intimate friend of the Conqueror, and who was created by him Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury. It is not improbable that Roger of Poictiers, having taken possession of his lands, erected a castle on it, for his own security, to display his grandeur, and to awe into obedience those turbulent spirits which had only submitted to the force of arms. This, however, is a fact which wants corroborative evidence; but if it could be ascertained, it would furnish a plausible guide by which we might fix the important era when the scattered hamlets first started into notice. Nothing was more common during these times of commotion, than for the dependant vassals to gather round the tyrant chief, to enjoy his protection, The conquest of Ireland, in 1172, was the first event which gave to Liverpool any commercial importance. The relative situation of its harbour to that country, was noticed by government; and it very soon became the established port, whence troops and military stores were conveyed to or from Ireland; and the common inlet where the commodities of both countries were interchanged. Henry II. finding it thus advantageous to his interests, granted its first charter in the same year (1172) in which the conquest of Ireland was completed, and erected burgage houses for its merchants. In 1207, a second charter was granted by John; and Henry III. in 1227, after confirming the grants of all former charters, for a 57 Historical Observations respecting Liverpool. fine of ten marks, constituted it a free borough for ever, with a merchant guild or society, and various other liberties and privileges. These advantages being secured, Liverpool held out an inviting aspect to traders, and speculative men repaired thither, and by their united efforts laid the foundation of that extensive commerce, for which it has been so long and so justly distinguished. 58 season consigned over to solitude, and was finally metamorphosed into a prison, which character it sustained until the year 1811, when the prisoners were removed to a more humane mansion built purposely for their reception. From 1811 until 1819 this gloomy mansion, which had progressively witnessed the magnificence of nobility, the profusions of festivity, the songs of mirth, the exhilarations of music, the groans In the earlier periods of its his- of the prisoner, and the clanking of tory, its exports consisted chiefly of his chains, was finally abandoned, and iron, charcoal, woollen-cloth, armour, left in a state of melancholy desolation. horses, and dogs; and its imports, of Towards the conclusion of 1819, its linen-cloth, yarn, fish, and hides. Its mouldering roof and walls were taken ships, which were then few in number, down, and this venerable monument of and diminutive in dimensions, only antiquity was completely demolished. carried on a coasting trade, and visit- From the fourteenth until the comed the shores of Ireland, which bound-mencement of the sixteenth century, ed the extent of their communications the history of Liverpool is but little and intercourse. Its warehouses, which are perhaps unrivalled both in number and magnitude, now contain the produce of every nation; and its long range of extensive docks, exhibits ships which trade in every quarter of the globe. Next to the ancient castle, of which we have already spoken, the venerable tower which stood at the bottom of Water-street claims our attention. This was an ancient building; but by whom it was erected is rather uncertain. By some it has been contended, that it was probably raised so early as the days of Henry I.; but others have argued that the year 1350 has a fairer claim to the erection of this building, since at that time, the duke of Lancaster, to whom it has been ascribed, received orders from the king to guard the sea-coasts of Lancashire with unremitting vigilance. The extent and form of this ancient pile, in its original condition, we have now no means of knowing, as it is uncertain what changes it underwent in subsequent years, as it passed into the hands of distinct possessors. So late as the year 1734, it was the occasional residence of the Earl of Derby; for in the above year James Earl of Derby, being mayor of Liverpool, gave entertainments in it, to the inhabitants of the town. And after having been abandoned as a residence of nobility, its great hall was converted into an assembly room, and was used for that purpose until the middle of the last century; when amusement finding better accommodations, it was for a No. 23.-VOL. III. known. By Edward III. Richard III. and Henry IV. its charters were confirmed, and its privileges extended, and little doubt can be entertained, that its commerce and the number of its inhabitants increased in proportion with the advantages they enjoyed. Of this town Leland gives the following account. 66 Lyrpole, alias Lyverpoole, a pavid towne, hath but a chapel. Walton a iiii miles of nat far from the se is paroche chirch. The king hath a castelet there, and the erle of Darbe hath a stone howse there. Irisch marchauntes cum much thither, as to a good haven. After that Mersey water cumming towards Rumcorne in Cheshire lisethi amonge the cummune people the name, and is Lyrpole. At Lyrpole is smaule custume payid that causith marchantes to resort. Good marchandis at Lyrpole, and moch Yrisch yarn that Manchester men do by ther." Flattering as this account may seem, the town records state, that in 1565, the number of houses and cottages amounted to no more than 138. The shipping at this time consisted of tea barks (the largest of 40 tons burden) and two boats, navigated by 75 men ; and at Wallasey, a creek on the opposite shore, were three barks, making together 36 tons, and navigated by 14 men. In 1571 the declining state of Liverpool induced the inhabitants to petition Elizabeth that they might be relieved from a subsidy which had been imposed, and in this petition it is styled "Her Majesty's poor decayed town of Liverpool." E |