SUS PEN'SI ON-lin I TM E, a structure which is hung and stretched across some chasm, water-course, or other space, over which it is designed to form a. passage. Is modern structures of this sort, the leading features for the most part consist in fixing securely, in the two opposite banks, the extremities of strong chains, which, being carried over piers or pillars, reach across the space to he passed in such a in inner that each portion of chain intercept e between two piers is allowed naturally to assume, by its weight, the ti4ure or the curve named the catenarian. From these chains, a. platform for the rmolway is suspended by means of a series of equidistant vertical rods. The largest suspension bridge in Great Britain, is that over the Menai Strait in Wales, the distance between the points of suspension being 510 feel. A remark able structure of this kind is over the Niagara river below the Falls, connect ing the American and Canadian shores. surrEE', the net of sacrifice to which a llindoo widow submits, namely, that of immolating herself on the funeral pile of her husband. Though none of the sacred
hooks of the Hindoos absolutely command the suttee, they speak of it as highly meritorious, an•I the means of obtaining eternal beatitude. It is beheyeit also to render the husband and his ancestors happy, and to purify him from all offen ces, even if he had killed a brahmin. Since the year 1756, when the Eritish power in India became firmly established, upwards of 70,000 llindoo widows have thus been sacrificed. It is gratifying however, to add, that this shocking per version of devotion has at length been abolished ; and to Lord Bentinek, the governor-general of India, the honor of the abolition is due. Public opinion in England, was greatly divided as to the propriety of interfering with a solemn religious rite of a foreign nation : but the humane decision of the governor-general appears to have been received by the public with heartfelt satisfaction. A short time before Lord Bentinek's order, a rajah in the hill country, who died, had twenty-eight wives burned with his body!