RELIGIOUS SACRIFICES IN INDIA In his recent article on "The Sufferings of Animals in India," Mr. Labhshankar Laxmidas referred to the cruelties perpetrated on the unfortunate victims in certain sacrificial rites. One would have thought that such a protest (which, in fact, has already stirred the Indian Government to action) would have the sympathy of every civilised person; but the article, strange to say, aroused the wrath of a gentleman residing at Ilfracombe, Mr. W. Theobald, Secretary of the North Devon Anti-Vivisection Society, who wrote us a very discourteous letter, in which he said that he had never heard of these barbarous practices, though he had lived many years in India, and asking whether we did not see that we were making the humane cause ridiculous by publishing Mr. Laxmidas's statements. Seeing that Mr. Theobald was entirely ignorant in the matter, we sent him extracts from the articles by the Bishop of Madras and other authorities, and hoped that he would have the good sense to regret his blunder. Instead of that, however, Mr. Theobald, who appears to be an indiscreet admirer of the Indian Government, continued to nurse his wrath, like Achilles, by the sad sea waves, and set to work to see if he could not glean some material for another attack. Taking care this time to keep clear of the HUMANE REVIEW (to which it would have been the natural course to address any criticism), he printed on his own behalf a leaflet bearing the following formidable title: "The Injury the Cause of Humanity sustains from the Injudicious Advocacy of some of its Friends." From this tremendous indictment we quote the following passage: "Mr. Laxmidas is to be commended for the motives which impel him to undertake a crusade on behalf of the sufferings of animals, but his incapacity for taking a judicial view of affairs, and his mendacious charge against the Government of India, render him totally unfit for the position he has assumed. At p. 153 of his article, Mr. Laxmidas says (speaking of the attitude of the Indian Government to the religions of India): In its sacred name also most horrible deeds are done in my country, and that, too, under the protection of the English law. A man may torture an animal as brutally as he likes, provided he does it in the name of religion. Then he has the protection of Section II. of the Government of India Act XI. of 1890.' It is wholly unnecessary to discuss the soundness of Mr. Laxmidas's view of Act XI. of 1890; what we must consider is how and to what extent this Act is used in the police court to protect those who torture animals in the name of religion." Mr. Theobald goes on to accuse Mr. Laxmidas of suppressing the fact that convictions have sometimes been obtained for sacrificial cruelties. 66 Now, this outcry on Mr. Theobald's part is much ado about nothing, the result of a complete misunderstanding of the article to which he refers. Mr. Laxmidas did not charge the Indian Government with "using" the Act to shield evil-doers; all that he implied by the word protection" was that a certain clause in the Acts gave practical immunity to sacrificial cruelties. That in some exceptional cases convictions have been obtained does not disprove the fact that the bulk of cases cannot be brought into court at all. As, therefore, no such charge was made by him against the Indian Government, Mr. Laxmidas certainly had no reason for suppressing any reports of convictions, and Mr. Theobald has merely discovered a mare's nest. It is quite possible that the reports in question were included in the first draft of Mr. Laxmidas's address, and that in abbreviating the article for the HUMANE REVIEW (as we were compelled to do), we cut them out; but if we did so, we had no such dark design as that which Mr. Theobald imagines, and the omissions, if made by us, were made unintentionally, and were simply owing to the exigencies of space. This may seem hardly worth mentioning, but as Mr. Theobald has printed so rude a leaflet, and has also written to us very intemperately on the subject, we make this brief explanation. 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