THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
LIFE IN INDIA 
 
 
 
 •S? 
 
LONDON : PRINTED BT 
 
 BPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 AND PARLIAMENT STREET 
 
 4 : 
 
 
LIFE IN INDIA 
 
 A SERIES OP SKETCHES SHOWING SOMETHING OF THE 
 
 ANGLO-INDIAN— THE LAND HE LIVES IN— AND 
 
 THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM HE LIVES. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD BRADDON, 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1872. 
 
 All rights restrvcd. 
 
 ? I 
 
BtT5 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The sketches that comprise this volume appeared 
 originally in the pages of Fraser. 
 
 Their reproduction in this form is not attributable 
 to any high opinion that I entertain of their literary 
 merit; but because of the growing interest in 
 Indian subjects which may render acceptable to the 
 British public a truthful picture of Anglo-Indian 
 life. 
 
 Beyond depicting the manners and customs of 
 England's sons and daughters in that land of exile 
 and the general nature of their surroundings these 
 pages do not go. My highest aim has been the 
 truthful delineation of simple things. And because 
 I believe this accuracy to have been for the most 
 part attained, and know it to have been always 
 intentioned, I venture to offer ' Life in India ' for 
 the perusal of those who want to know something 
 about our great Eastern Empire. 
 
 E. B. 
 
 Lucknow : May 1872. 
 
 M312007 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 *&• 
 
 CHAl>TEK PAaa 
 
 I. Prefatory . . 1 
 
 II. A General View of Northern and Southern India 10 
 
 III. India Eighty Years Ago — A Retrospect ... 54 
 
 IV. Domestic Interiors 100 
 
 V. In the Moffussil 147 
 
 VI. The Natives of the Country 198 
 
 VII. The Rulers, the Public, and the Press . . . 256 
 
 VIII. The Overland Route . . . . . . . 303 
 
LIFE IN INDIA, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 It is not a matter upon which the British public can 
 be congratulated, that the ignorance still prevailing 
 in this country as to the character of the brightest 
 
 jewel of the British Crown is almost as benightedly 
 dark as it was two thousand two hundred years ago, 
 when the son of Philip of Macedon tried to fix that 
 gem in the diadem of Greece. We have, undoubtedly, 
 made vast strides in the path of civilisation during 
 the many centuries intervening between the reign of 
 Alexander the Great and that of our gracious Queen 
 Victoria. In science and the useful arts there has 
 been material improvement. We know a great deal 
 more about a great many things than ever came 
 within the knowledge, or* was shadowed forth in the 
 wildest visions, of the wisest philosophers of Greece. 
 And if we cannot say quite as much for the arts 
 ornamental — if the statues recently erected in our 
 
Z LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 metropolis do not excel those of Phidias — if Mr. 
 Frith' s last picture is not immeasurably superior to 
 the greatest effort of Apelles — and if Mr. Boucicault's 
 dramas are not, in point of language and construc- 
 tion, quite as powerful as the works of Euripides, we 
 can, at least, fall back upon our useful inventions 
 and improvements — our electric telegraph, railway 
 travelling, gas, kerosene oil, constitutional govern- 
 ment, parish unions, and divorce courts, and point 
 triumphantly to those irrefragable evidences of the 
 progress we have made. In geography, above all, 
 have we advanced. Whereas, to the educated Grecian 
 of the palmiest days of Greece, the world was a 
 flat surface over the edge of which (if you could find 
 it) you might enjoy the luxury of taking a header 
 into space, we know that the planet we inhabit is a 
 sphere slightly flattened as an orange (vide Elementary 
 Geographies) at the poles. Further, we know of the 
 existence of vast continents and small islands, wide 
 oceans and land-locked seas, which were wholly ex- 
 cluded from the Atlases of the ancients. We believe 
 that we have discovered the sources of the Nile 
 (though what we are to do with the sources when we 
 find them is not yet made clear to the majority of us). 
 Dr. Livingstone, if he ever return (and we earnestly 
 pray that he may), will, in his account of his present 
 expedition, add considerably to our knowledge about 
 Central Africa ; and, if we have not yet discovered 
 
PREFATORY. 3 
 
 the North-west Passage, we hope some day to find 
 out that route which is to be so eminently useful 
 when we know it, but which hitherto has only resulted 
 in the expenditure of much money, and, what is more 
 to be regretted, the expenditure of the valuable lives 
 of some of our hardy Arctic explorers. Yes, we know 
 a great deal more about the geography of this planet 
 than was ever known before ; but about India (the 
 brightest jewel, &c.) there are yet many of us, even 
 in civilised and highly- cultured England, who are 
 little less ignorant than were the Grecians of that 
 early period when Alexander met Porus on the plains 
 of the Punjaub, and when, there is reason to think, the 
 hardy veterans of Macedon carved their way from the 
 north-west frontier nearly to the site whereon now 
 stands Calcutta. In spite of weekly mails, telegraphic 
 communication, and the enormous interest that India 
 should have for England, the majority of us know as 
 little about that vast land as we do about the interior 
 economy of the moon. We have a vague idea that 
 it is. rather a large place, rather a hot place, and 
 rather a good place for making money in ; but beyond 
 a hazy conception of its area, temperature, and com- 
 mercial importance, we do not go. Excepting some 
 of those who have been in India — the few who have 
 crammed for the civil service of that country — and 
 the small number who have given exceptional interest 
 to the subject, how many are there who could, in any 
 
 p 2 
 
4 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 sort, describe the territorial divisions of India, or 
 detail the languages and dialects of the many peoples 
 between Peshawur and Cape Comorin? And the 
 number of those to whom the habits and customs of 
 the Indian and Anglo-Indian are known is yet 
 smaller. The B. P. is satisfied tha.t the lascav, who is 
 to be met sweeping a crossing, or selling matches in 
 our streets, is the prototype equally of the powerful 
 and manly Punjaubee and the effeminate inhabitant of 
 Bengal ; and the Anglo-Indian is generally believed 
 to be a luxurious idler, whose life is spent in hookah- 
 smoking, servant- scolding, tiffin-eating, sangaree- 
 drinking, and the collection of those lacs of rupees 
 which Providence (kinder to the Anglo-Indian than 
 to others) pours upon him without any effort made 
 on his part to secure them. 
 
 Had the Indian Empire, with its untold commercial 
 wealth, its immense area, and its two hundred mil- 
 lions or so of population, come to us by one great 
 coup de main, the general interest about so valuable 
 an addition to our possessions could not but have 
 been excited ; but this was not the mode by which 
 the British flag was raised over the kingdoms once 
 ruled by Mogul, Rajah, and Nuwaub. From genera- 
 tion to generation, almost continuously — from the 
 time of Elizabeth down to the year of grace 1855 — 
 our Indian Empire has grown by a steady process of 
 accretion : a province annexed here, a kingdom con- 
 
PKEFATORY. O 
 
 quered there — now some new acquisition gained by 
 diplomacy, and anon some farther acquirement won 
 by treaty ; a splendid empire has grown, marvellously 
 as did the giant beanstalk, out of a small patch of 
 land granted to a company of merchants ; and that 
 empire we now call British India. On but few oc- 
 casions has there been a check to our progress, or 
 anxiety as to our supremacy, in the East. When 
 Labourdonnais and Dupleix successively threatened 
 to oust us from Madras ; when Suraj-oo-dowlah, the 
 Nuwaub Nazim of Bengal, seized our stronghold, 
 Fort William, in Bengal, and drove to their ships in 
 the Hooghly those who were fortunate enough to 
 escape ; and, in our own day, when a pampered native 
 army attempted to strike down that flag under which 
 it had heretofore fought and bled, England has had 
 cause to tremble. But the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 undid the evil Labourdonnais had done us. Clive, the 
 civilian soldier, carried our arms triumphantly over 
 the fields where the French and Suraj-oo-dowlah dis- 
 puted empire with us ; and Clyde, Havelock, Outram, 
 Rose, and Napier brought England through the ter- 
 rible crisis of 1857-8. The danger on these occasions, 
 rudely as it may have menaced us, was afar off even 
 when it was greatest. Moreover, except in 1857-8, 
 it was overcome without any serious call upon Eng- 
 land's strength and resources ; and it is not wholly 
 unnatural that a danger barely recognised while in 
 
6 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 existence, should not be long borne in mind when it 
 had ceased to be of any immediate importance. The 
 great majority of the British public have grown up in 
 ; the belief that India belongs to us ; that we intend 
 to keep it ; and that it is a good country to have, 
 because we get from it tea, sugar, hides, cashmere 
 shawls, &c, and export to it piece-goods, grey shirt- 
 ings, and a large number of promising younger sons 
 who could not be otherwise provided for ; and there's 
 an end of the matter. Whether in the House of 
 Commons or in ordinary society, the subject of India 
 is one which — few being sufficiently conversant with 
 it — is to the mass uninteresting to the verge of bore- 
 dom. But there are signs that this state of things is 
 not always to continue. Within no very long period 
 there have appeared works upon Indian Administra- 
 tion and social life which have done much to awaken 
 the interest of the public. Notable among these are 
 Colonel Chesney's very able volume, and the series of 
 papers by a ' Competition Walla ; ' but the subject 
 can hardly be said to have been exhausted, and we 
 will therefore endeavour to show, in a popular shape, 
 what India is. 
 
 One can imagine that the merry monarch, his 
 glorious Majesty Charles II., thought but little of 
 the small tract of Indian territory which, as the 
 dower of his not-too-happy queen, he obtained from 
 Portugal. It is probable that he thought as little 
 
PREFATORY. 7 
 
 about the dower as about the Infanta with whom it 
 came to him. Had it possessed more value in his 
 eyes, there is reason to suppose that he would have 
 sold it to the highest bidder, as he did Dunkirk ; and, 
 for the matter of that, would have sold England, had 
 he been in a position to put up that lot for sale. 
 This good-natured prince had better things to think 
 of than India. The fair dame, who was Lady Castle- 
 maine by right of her husband, Duchess of Cleveland 
 as a king's mistress, and flowar-girl as a visitor to 
 the chambers of Wycherley : the romping, honest (?) 
 Nell of orange- selling celebrity ; the fascinating 
 Frenchwoman who was enriched for her services to 
 the Grand Monarque and ennobled (as Duchess of 
 Portsmouth) for her services to England ; these and 
 other ladies of like quality occupied much of Charles's 
 attention. The last lampoon of my Lord Rochester, 
 and the latest act of rebellion projected by his shifty 
 Grace the Duke of Buckingham, were of more import- 
 ance to Charles than Indian commerce or territory. 
 And while their Sovereign thought so little about the 
 East, it is not to be wondered at that the people of 
 England, who had upon their hands and minds such 
 grave affairs as the plague and the great fire — not to 
 mention such minor troubles as Titus Oates, Judge 
 Jeffreys, the gay doings of the Court, the possibility 
 of England being absorbed into France, and the 
 threatened dissolution of the Protestant religion — it 
 
8 LIFE IN IXDIA. 
 
 is not a matter of wonder, I say, that the people oi 
 England, temjpus 1660 to 1685, gavebnt little of their 
 time to the contemplation of the Indian question. 
 But nous avons change tout cela ; we have now some- 
 thing more than a few acres to look at as our posses- 
 sions in Hindostan. We need not in this day 
 anticipate hearing at Whitehall the hostile guns of 
 the invading Dutchmen, or fear (whatever the Con- 
 servatives for political purposes may assert) the 
 annihilation of our Church, State, or nationality. 
 Our attention need not be wholly taken up by home 
 affairs ; and we may, therefore, very well give some 
 amount of our consideration to a dependency which 
 maintains out of its own revenue by far the greater 
 portion of the British army, and which is an impor- 
 tant pillar, if we may not say the corner-stone, of 
 British commerce. 
 
 It is a further inducement to us to take up this 
 subject that our papers may be useful to those able 
 novelists who, being in no way restricted from de- 
 scribing a place by the fact that they have never seen 
 it, sometimes select India as the mise en scene of their 
 tales. There is necessarily a limit to the usefulness 
 of an author's inner consciousness for the purpose of 
 objective writing. It is not even always certain that 
 a slight knowledge of the elementary geography of 
 India, and such few facts as relate to the colour of 
 the people and the degrees of temperature which 
 
PREFATORY. y 
 
 prevail in that sunny land, will carry an imaginative 
 writer through half a dozen chapters upon Indian 
 life successfully. A vague idea that the country to 
 be depicted is somewhere in or near the tropics may 
 guarantee the introduction into the landscape of 
 feathery palms, tawny peasants, and monkeys ; but 
 this is not quite enough. Par exemple we may select 
 a piece of descriptive writing which lately appeared 
 in a popular magazine, and which, in a well-rounded 
 period, gave to Agra pathless mountains. Now, to 
 talk of Agra's pathless mountains is just as much in 
 keeping with truth as it would be to speak of Hamp- 
 stead's boundless seas. It is true that there are no 
 paths to the mountains at Agra ; but then, there are 
 no mountains upon which, by any amount of human 
 ingenuity,, paths could be made. There are no 
 mountains at Agra, unless that * dream in marble,' 
 the Taj Mehal, is to be considered one (that having 
 paths, by the way), and the Bedouin of the Desert 
 would find his good Arab steed founder under him if 
 he attempted, riding forth from Agra, to reach the 
 nearest hills in anything like one day's journey. It 
 may appear to be breaking a butterfly on a wheel to 
 make so much of this trifling slip ; but we cite it as 
 an example of many errors equally or more glaring, 
 and we treat it somewhat ruthlessly because it comes 
 from a talented writer, who ordinarily devotes much 
 attention to correctness of detail. 
 
10 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 
 
 It is not an uncommon thing for the friends of 
 Brown, just proceeding to India, to say to him, 'Oh ! 
 Robinson is out there, mind you remember us to him 
 when you meet him. 5 Now Jones may be bound for 
 Hydrabad, while Robinson is stationed at Peshawur ; 
 the chances of their ever meeting being as remote as 
 if one were in Central Asia and the other in the 
 Salt Lake city. But the common acquaintances of 
 the two exiles fail to recognise this fact. To them In- 
 dia is India, just as London is London ; and, as there 
 is a smaller European society in the former than that 
 to be found in the little village, they conclude that 
 any two members of it must, as a matter of course, 
 come into contact. Just as they fail to appreciate 
 the extent of India, many also overlook the varia- 
 tions which distinguish the climate, natural features, 
 and people of that; country. To give to Northern 
 India the moist warmth, the forests of palms, and 
 the rank vegetation of the south, is as inconsistent 
 with truth as would be the introduction in a de- 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN' AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 11 
 
 scription of Siberia of the sunny sky, the vineyards, 
 and the clumps of olives found in Southern Italy ; 
 and yet there are many who entertain one stereo- 
 typed idea of an Indian scene, be it overshadowed 
 by the mountains of Afghanistan or scented by the 
 spice-ladened zephyrs from Ceylon. 
 
 Undoubtedly heat is a universal feature of the 
 climate of the plains of India, but then it differs in 
 degree and duration to a very great extent. In the 
 south there is an equable temperature which is never 
 sufficiently cool, though never unbearably hot. Here 
 the seasons can hardly be divided into the three — 
 cold weather, hot weather, and rains — which further 
 north are the equivalents (if three can be the 
 equivalents of four) of our English winter, spring, 
 summer, and autumn ; for there is no cold weather, 
 and in many parts rain falls so frequently that it 
 is not easy to set aside any particular period as 
 peculiarly devoted to wet. The enjoyment of a 
 perpetual summer, and a very hot one, tempered for 
 those near the coast by an occasional cool breeze off 
 the sea, cannot be ecstatic. People have been known 
 to get tired of the months of continuous day or 
 night which may be spent in the neighbourhood of 
 the North Pole. There are those who are not suf- 
 ficiently long suffering to bear with perfect equa- 
 nimity the protraction over two or three days of a 
 London November fog. And it cannot be ex- 
 
12 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 pected that the Anglo-Indian of the south should 
 always survey with feelings of unmixed pleasure a 
 thermometer that invariably registers the tempera- 
 ture at about 90°, or a wet bulb that proves the air 
 he breathes to be charged with 995 of moisture. It 
 is true that he has advantages to compensate in 
 some measure for what he suffers. He can wear in 
 January the garments that he covered himself with 
 in June, and he can economise space in his house 
 by omitting fire-places in the building plan. But 
 these are not of a very solid character, and barely 
 atone for the evil effect of the climate upon his 
 conversation. 
 
 It is a Briton's birthright to talk about the 
 weather. To bashful men, who have nothing else 
 in their conversational budget to draw upon, the 
 weather is, as it were, a life-buoy clinging to which 
 they are saved from sinking into the depths of ntter 
 silence. But one cannot get much out of this topic 
 when the weather is marked by the very slightest 
 variations. It is a dreary truism to say that to-day 
 is hot, when in this respect to-day does not differ 
 from the 364 that have preceded it, and when it may 
 be safely predicated that the 364 days to come will, 
 so far, be very much the same ; and the Anglo-Indian 
 down south who can make anything out of this 
 branch of small talk mnst have an inventive genius 
 which renders him independent of it. 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 13 
 
 In Northern India the variations of temperature 
 and the changes of seasons are more forcibly marked. 
 In the Punjaub the cold weather lasts from about 
 the middle of September to the end of April. For 
 some months of this season, although one is still 
 reminded that there is a sun overhead, the mercury 
 stands at 40° to 70° in the day, and not unfrequently 
 falls below the freezing point during the night. 
 Woollen clothes, broad-cloth, and overcoats are 
 worn ; the British soldier is paraded in sheep-skin 
 wrappers ; the native huddles himself in his rezai 
 (a sort of coverlet which, with its padding of cotton 
 and external coating of dirt, is an armour of proof 
 against the cold air) ; and the Anglo-Indian sits over 
 a good wood fire, and drinks hot brandy-and-water 
 without distressing himself. May is uncomfortably 
 warm. But from June until the rain sets in the 
 Punjaubee lives in an atmosphere of which the 
 Englishman of England can have no fitting con- 
 ception unless he spends a day or two in a baker's 
 oven, or a July evening in the saloon of the Al- 
 hambra. The country around is parched and barren 
 as the Sahara ; not a blade of grass is to be seen 
 throughout the land, save the few patches which, 
 as croquet-grounds or gardens, have some degree of 
 verdure retained in them by constant irrigation. 
 The sun above seems to be a ball of fire : a haze of 
 hot gas rises from the earth : and from the west 
 
14 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 blows a scorching wind, the sirocco of that cuisine cle 
 (Liable the Daodpore desert, which comes upon every 
 object, animate and inanimate, with all the effect of 
 the blast of a furnace. Without artificial appliances 
 for cooling a house, the temperature indoors at this 
 time runs up to about 110°, and there is little 
 difference in the range of the thermometer day or 
 night. What it is out of doors few Europeans care 
 to ascertain by actual experience. Tiger- shooting 
 or inevitable exigencies of business may impel the 
 Anglo-Indian to brave the open-air heat, and he is 
 in either case satisfied that the glass indicates a 
 temperature somewhat below the boiling point. 
 But, as a rule, he spends the day in the shade of 
 his roof; and the social duties of cultivating his 
 acquaintances, leaving limp parallelograms at their 
 houses, or meeting them at the band-stand, as well 
 as the personal duty of taking exercise, are performed 
 either in the morning before the sun has attained 
 its full force, or in the evening when that bright 
 luminary has completed the heating operations of 
 the day. As an agreeable change, the Punjaubee is 
 now and then visited by a < dust storm. 5 This meteo- 
 rological phenomenon consists of about 6 parts hot 
 wind and 4 hot sand ; it bears a strong resemblance, 
 as to density and colour, to a London fog, and it 
 possesses a pleasant peculiarity of finding its way 
 through doors and windows into every domicile. 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 15 
 
 During one of these storms the darkness of Egypt 
 is upon the land ; after it, dust thicker than the 
 dust of ages is upon the furniture; and when its 
 force is expended, it is something to be thankful for 
 if the thatched roof of a bungalow is upon the walls 
 to which it of right belongs, instead of being de- 
 posited in some distant field. It is to be said in 
 favour of a dust-storm that it cools the air for some 
 little time ; but then the man who, finds himself 
 roofless, sitting in a cloud of dust which profanes 
 the Lares and Penates so dear to him, is not exactly 
 in a position to thoroughly enjoy a fall of 5° in the 
 temperature. As to the ' hot wind/ it must not 
 be supposed that this is the worst feature of the 
 Punjaub summer ; on the contrary, those who can 
 successfully use JcusJcus tatties, find in the scorchingly 
 dry wind from the west a very good friend. A 
 hushus tattie is a screen made with the roots of a 
 peculiar sort of grass ; this is placed in a doorway 
 with a western frontage, and is always kept wet. 
 The layers of grass are so arranged that the air 
 passes through them freely, and the air in its 
 passage through this damp medium is cooled to a 
 very great extent. So far as possible all other 
 ingresses for air are closed, and a room in which 
 this artificial expedient fully operates can be kept at 
 as low a temperature as 75°. When the ' hot wind ' 
 is not blowing, i.e. when the wind is not westerly — 
 
16 LIFE TS INDIA. 
 
 for every wind is hot — the Anglo-Indian in the 
 Punjanb uses the thermantidote. Air is artificially 
 created by a wheel, and cooled by a small screen 
 which admits it into the wheel-box ; but even when 
 the native who turns the wheel is not asleep (and 
 he very frequently is), this machine is but a poor 
 substitute for the tattie. 
 
 The rainy season in the Punjaub lasts from early 
 in July to early in September, and is endurable enough. 
 It is much cooler during that period in the north 
 
 than in the south, and the rainfall is more speedily 
 disposed of by absorption or drainage. 
 
 Besides these variations of climate north and south, 
 
 there are others to be found between west and east. 
 
 These are more remarkable in Upper India than they 
 
 are lower down, and amount to this, that the further 
 
 west the situation may be the more it is exposed to 
 
 the influence of the hot wind. 
 
 Taking the three provinces, the Punjaub, Bengal 
 
 and Madras, we may epitomise the seasons in tabular 
 
 form as follows : — 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 17 
 
 
 Provinces 
 
 Punjaub 
 
 Bengal . - 
 
 Madras 
 
 Cold 
 weather 
 
 Hot 
 weather 
 
 Rains 
 
 Cold 
 weather 
 
 Hot 
 weather 
 
 Rains 
 
 Duration of 
 Season 
 
 Commences 
 in September 
 and ends in 
 April. 
 
 Commences 
 May and 
 ends July. 
 
 Commence 
 July and end 
 September. 
 
 Commences 
 in November 
 and ends late 
 in February. 
 
 Commences 
 in March and 
 ends in June. 
 
 Commence in 
 June and end 
 in October. 
 
 Cold 
 
 Does not 
 
 weather . 
 
 commence at 
 
 
 any time. 
 
 Hot 
 
 Commence 
 
 weather 
 
 January 1 
 
 Rains 
 
 and end 
 
 
 Dec. 31. 
 
 Remarks 
 
 Thermometer goe3 down below freezing 
 point, and rarely rises above 70°. Fires 
 almost indispensable; three blankets 
 necessary ; tub in the morning unplea- 
 santly cold ; open-air life delightful all 
 day. Climate dry, cold, and bracing. 
 Fall of rain a rare occurrence. 
 
 Thermometer goes up anywhere, and 
 stays there. Tatties, thermantidotes 
 and punkahs save the Anglo-Indian 
 from perishing. A sheet is too much 
 covering by night, and shirt-sleeves are 
 more than enough by day. Tub neces- 
 sary three times a-day. Open-air life 
 simply death. Fall of rain highlv im- 
 probable. Hail-storm probable. Dust- 
 storms of frequent occurrence. 
 
 Rain-fall moderate. Air often cool, and 
 only occasionally muggy. Punkahs not 
 always required. Out-door life practica- 
 ble, and a suit of thin flannel bearable. 
 
 Thermometer goes down to 50° in the 
 night, and rises to 80° in the day. Fires 
 a possibility; one blanket sufficient; 
 open-air life pleasant. Climate, as a 
 rule, cool and not very damp. Punkahs 
 only used exceptionally. Rain occa- 
 sionally ; little hail ; no dust-storms. 
 
 Thermometer ranges between 80° and 
 100°. Tatties and thermantidotes no 
 use, because there are no hot winds. 
 Punkahs go night and day without 
 ceasing (except when the punkah-puller 
 falls asleep and drops the rope). Out- 
 door life and exercise possible to those 
 who can afford to lose a stone a day by 
 perspiration. Rain a frequent occur- 
 rence. Climate hot and often damp. 
 
 Thermometer conducts itself much as it 
 did in the hot weather. St. Swithin's 
 day is realised during the greater por- 
 tion of these months. The country is 
 for the most part flooded, and all the 
 frogs of Egypt appear to have dropped 
 upon India. Mushrooms grow on one's 
 boots, and fungi sprout from one's 
 dress-coat. It is an impossibility to 
 put on a dry shirt, or to live without a 
 punkah immediately over one's head. 
 Snakes, scorpions and centipedes enjoy 
 this season, and, emerging from their 
 homes in holes and corners, find com- 
 fortable lodgings under the cushions of 
 the ottoman or the pillows of the bed. 
 
 Nil. 
 
 Rain being an ordinary occurrence all 
 the year round, it is unnecessary to 
 distinguish the hot weather from the 
 rains. The same remarks apply to both 
 seasons. The climate for the twelve 
 months is very much what we have de- 
 scribed that of Bengal in the rains, onlv 
 that in the neighbourhood of the coast 
 the favourable influence of the sea is 
 experienced. 
 
18 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 There are, of course, gradations of temperature and 
 climate throughout the country, and the preceding 
 synopsis only professes to give a general view of these 
 as they are found in the greater part of the three 
 provinces referred to. In the Punjaub, the cold 
 weather of Peshawur lasts longer and is more severe 
 than that of Delhi, while the hot weather is shorter 
 and hotter. At Dehra Ismael Khan, and the four 
 other military stations on the western frontier of the 
 Punjaub, it is said by the people that they have only 
 a thin piece of paper between them and Avernus ; 
 and the rainy season might, for this part of India, be 
 very well omitted from consideration, so seldom does 
 a fall of rain visit it. The climate of the upper part 
 of the North-west Provinces is much like that of 
 Delhi; south-west it merges into that of Bengal. 
 And similarly the climate of Bengal merges into that 
 of Madras as we proceed south of the 20th degree of 
 latitude. 
 
 The heat of India is certainly not appreciated by 
 those Englishmen who have never experienced it. We 
 not unfrequently hear it said in a hot English sum- 
 mer, that the heat in India cannot be greater than it is 
 at home. Our friend Major Porker, who is stout and 
 has a slight tendency in the direction of such uncom- 
 fortable ailments as apoplexy, walks from the Rag to 
 his chambers in Jermyn Street on a July afternoon ; 
 he is imprudent enough to take the sunny side of the 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 19 
 
 street, and, getting warm, lie propounds with much, 
 emphasis and some expletives the dictum that it is as 
 hot in London as it is in Calcutta. If Porker were 
 to attempt to walk 400 yards on a July afternoon in 
 Calcutta, dressed as he is and in the hat he wears in 
 London, the only matter of doubt as to the conclu- 
 sion of this pedestrian feat would be whether coup de 
 soleil or heat apoplexy carried him off first. Strange 
 to say, many retired Anglo-Indians who have spent 
 years in India appear to wholly forget what the Indian 
 climate was, and fondly imagine that they are enjoy- 
 ing the summer warmth of Hindostan in the region 
 of Bayswater. It is certainly hot in England some- 
 times, remarkably so was it in the summer of 1868. 
 It is very hot in the south of Europe during the 
 summer solstice. But nowhere in Europe can heat 
 like that of India be discovered, unless we betake 
 ourselves to the oven, furnace, or hot-house to find it. 
 With such variations of climate as we have 
 described, and under such different conditions 
 geographically considered, it necessarily follows that 
 Northern and Southern India vary very materially in 
 their natural features. The description of Eastern 
 scenery given in Lalla Roohh, though it does give \ 
 some idea of Cashmere, is altogether inapplicable to 
 any part of British India. A painting which rendered 
 accurately a landscape in Madras or the Deccan, 
 would no more pourtray a scene in the Punjaub, than 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 it would a rustic ' bit ' of Dartmoor. And those who 
 create an ideal of India out of the glowing word- 
 painting of poets, or the exaggerated imagery of the 
 Arabian Nights, are very far from knowing the 
 country as it is. India is by no means the ' land of 
 the cypress and myrtle ' that many suppose. The 
 Anglo-Indian does not ordinarily find himself in the 
 neighbourhood of a lovely glade, ' where the Etrurian 
 shades high overarched embower, 5 and pour down 
 richly-scented blossoms upon his sola topee ; l where 
 ripe grapes and other inviting and luscious fruit 
 hang within easy reach ; where the bul-bul murmurs 
 his song to the rose ; where splashing fountains with 
 their sweet monotony lull the tired wayfarer; and 
 where (last though not least) the lovely village 
 maidens, with their gazelle eyes timidly cast down, 
 trip past him quickly yet gracefully to the music of 
 their ringing anklets. As a rule, the scene is more 
 prosaic and far less agreeable. The only scents he is 
 likely to become acquainted with are those which 
 emanate from a stagnant pool, or something worse ; 
 white ants are just as likely to fall upon his hat as 
 perfumed blossoms ; the fruit he sees would hardly 
 tempt him if he had not to purchase it, which he 
 must if he wants it ; the bul-bul, he has long since 
 discovered never warbles, and is only patronised by 
 the natives because, like the quail, he will fight ; the 
 
 1 A sola topee is a pith hat worn as a protection against the sun. 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 21 
 
 fountain is non-existent ; and the village beauties are 
 represented by two old women who are exchanging 
 compliments of a questionable character, and evinc- 
 ing their mutual affection by taking each from the 
 other what few locks of hair time has left upon their 
 ancient heads. 
 
 Instead of inviting our reader to take a walk with 
 us down Meet Street, we will suggest that he or she 
 accompany us (in the spirit) in a ride through one or 
 two scenes of India. Hey ! Presto ! Pass ! we are in 
 lower Bengal or elsewhere in the plains of the sunny 
 south. We have, perha.ps, spent a restless night ; a 
 few mosquitoes have got under the mosquito curtains 
 and broken our slumbers by their occasional bites and 
 incessant trumpeting ; or a couple of lively rats have 
 made of our recumbent form the ball-room floor upon 
 which to perform a rapid galop ; or a part of the 
 house has been blown down by a gale. But it is 
 morning, and if we wish to avoid the heat of the day 
 we must be up and off. We get up and start. The 
 country through which we pass is flat to the last 
 degree, if not * stale and unprofitable.' In every 
 direction the eye seeks in vain for a rise or fall ; there 
 is not an undulation to be found equal to that in 
 Eegent Street. The country is green, often thickly 
 wooded, and sometimes marked by rank vegeta- 
 tion, suggestive of all the ills that are the legacies of 
 malaria. Now and again we come upon a picturesque 
 
22 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 bit: a village shrine shaded by a grand old banyan 
 tree or tamarind ; or a pool covered with water-lilies 
 and overhung by bamboos ; but, as a rule, the elements 
 of the picturesque are wanting. There are no 
 hedgerows with their wealth of wild flowers to enliven 
 the landscape. Field is divided from field by a low 
 wall of earth from six inches to two feet high (some 
 of these small embankments being used as foot- 
 paths from village to village), or a boundary is more 
 clearly distinguished by a ditch and bank ornamented 
 by some species of cactus, prickly-pear, or the like. 
 Over a broad expanse of cultivated land or grass waste 
 we look without seeing any object to break the 
 monotony of the scene. There are no weeds even to 
 contrast with the standing crops. Over a sea of rice, 
 or (if the rice be cut) over a wide area of thin stubble, 
 we see in the distance and all around us an horizon 
 filled in with dense masses of mangoe trees, palms of 
 many sorts, tamarinds, banyans, peepuls, and bam- 
 boos. It is a proverbial saying of the Bengallee that 
 every man should beget a -son, plant a tree, and dig a 
 tank, and this apophthegm is freely acted upon 
 throughout the south. As we ride on we pass many 
 tanks ; some are small and shallow excavations, only 
 calculated to last a short time as receptacles for 
 water in any quantity ; others are of a more perma- 
 nent character, and a few of an ambitious description 
 have ghats (or flights of steps) for the convenience of 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN" AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 23 
 
 bathers and water-carriers. Pausing at one of these 
 larger tanks, we see men and women bathing together 
 on the steps of the ghat and discussing the scandal 
 of the neighbourhood, or their monetary concerns at 
 the same time. A Brahmin is going through his 
 morning's orisons, repeating the name of some deity 
 two hundred and twenty-three times, or some such 
 useful form of prayer, as he counts his beads or 
 thumbs his Brahminical thread, and occasionally dip- 
 ping his head in the water ; and one or two mothers 
 are evincing the unselfishness of their maternal love 
 by washing their begrimed offspring in that particular 
 part of the tank which is resorted to for drinking 
 purposes. On the platform above the steps, and in 
 the shade of a wide-spreading tree, a barber is 
 shaving the head of a Hindoo, and a vendor of dirty, 
 greasy, and generally objectionable sweetmeats, is 
 driving a brisk trade with a knot of loungers who 
 alternate the consumption of confectionery with the 
 tranquil enjoyment of the hubble-bubble. 1 Let it not 
 be supposed that the men and women who thus share 
 the pleasures of the bath are very much less decorous 
 in this respect than the fashionable people of both 
 sexes who do much the same sort of thing in France. 
 Like the French, the Hindoos enter the water in 
 costume, only the costume is that of every-day life, 
 not one specially adapted for the purpose, and it is 
 
 1 The plebeian hookah. 
 
24 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the fault of the climate that the clothes of normal 
 wear are not very thick. 
 
 But let us proceed upon our road — our road, by 
 the way, is principally occupied by two deep ruts cut 
 in it by native carts, all of which make it a point to 
 pursue one beaten (or rather cut up) track. These 
 ruts vary in depth from six to eight inches, and, as 
 there is not sufficient space outside them, no wheeled 
 conveyance can be driven on our road unless its 
 gauge be exactly that of the native vehicles. We 
 come upon a native cart in our way, and find it to be 
 a framework of bamboo upon a clumsy wooden axle, 
 and equally clumsy wheels. It is yoked upon the 
 neck of two oxen, and the driver sits upon the bamboo 
 pole at a convenient distance from the tails of his 
 cattle. A twist of these tails is now and again 
 administered as an encouragement to their wearers to 
 proceed, but it is of no use twisting tails now, for the 
 wheel of the cart being imbedded in very tenacious 
 mud a foot in depth, one ox has quietly subsided, and, 
 in a recumbent posture, is chewing the cud of what 
 can only be ' bitter fancy.' The Hindoo holds all 
 animals of the bovine order in high reverence. He 
 would not kill one by any direct process upon any 
 consideration, much less would he think of eating it. 
 But he can, nevertheless, nerve himself to inflict a 
 considerable amount of physical suffering upon this 
 creature of his adoration, and we find our cartman 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 25 
 
 administering a good deal of whip to his prostrate 
 bullock, and relieving his feelings by objurgating 
 that beast and all the female members of its family. 
 
 Leaving this carter to settle his differences with 
 his ox as he best can, we ride into a village of some 
 pretensions as to size. The houses are mostly built 
 of mud and thatched with grass (a few, such as the 
 houses of a well-to-do money-lender or zemindar, 
 maybe humble structures of bricks), and, save in the 
 roadways between them, imbedded in jungle. We 
 might call this jungle the luxuriant growth of vege- 
 tation and make poetical capital out of it thereby, but 
 the term rank jungle better describes that mass of 
 foliage and underwood which shuts out all pure air 
 and disseminates noxious gases causative of disease. 
 Up to the very walls there is a wilderness of trees, 
 shrubs, creepers, weeds and grass, the home of the 
 cobra, and the manufactory of miasma. Even the 
 roof is not free, for trailed upon it are creepers of the 
 pumpkin tribe, or some sort of esculent. Here and 
 there about the village are stagnant pools covered 
 with duck- weed, and highly suggestive of cholera and 
 other epidemics. And nowhere (unless a sanitary 
 commissioner may have enforced it) is there any 
 show of drainage, sewerage, or other measures for 
 the preservation of health. The native of the south 
 is quite contented that things should be so. They 
 were so in the time of his father and grandfather, and 
 
ZO LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 why should he wish to have them otherwise ? So he 
 does not have them otherwise if he can help it, 
 but goes on breathing the poison that killed his 
 father and grandfather with the most perfect com- 
 placency. Another generation is rising about him 
 and being taught the same philosophy. The children 
 of the village, who being brought naked into the 
 world continue in that state of undress for some 
 years, paddle about in the fetid pools and disport 
 themselves in the jungle with happy infantile dis- 
 regard of snakes and malaria. Sometimes the too 
 close contact with an angry cobra removes one of 
 these cherubs from the bosom of his family. Some- 
 times half a dozen scions of Hindoo houses are 
 swept off by a visitation of cholera. But, though 
 the bereaved parents may sincerely grieve for their 
 lost ones, they fail to see in their affliction any 
 warning for their future guidance. 
 . Like every other health measure, ventilation is 
 entirely lost sight of in these villages. In many 
 instances the houses are packed so close that you can 
 step across the street from roof to roof, the roadway 
 between being only sufficiently wide to answer its 
 main purpose as a receptacle for filth. The walls are 
 distinguished by very few windows, and these very 
 small ones, for windows afford facilities of flirting to 
 the frisky Indian matrons, and the Indian husband 
 thinks it the most efficacious plan of keeping his 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 27 
 
 better half faithful to shut her up in semi-darkness 
 wherein she can hardly see, and in an atmosphere 
 which makes breathing extremely difficult. Further 
 to add to the delights of this domestic interior, the 
 houses or huts are generally constructed without 
 chimneys, and so much of the dense smoke from the 
 wood fires burnt inside as cannot make its escape 
 through the crevices in the thatch, the small windows, 
 and the one doorway, settles as a rich black deposit 
 upon everything and everywhere in the house, or is 
 taken into the lungs of the inhabitants. 
 
 We have said that our village is a large one, and 
 being so, we are not surprised to find a bazaar 
 (market) in it. Oh ! ye shades who watch over the 
 bazaar of Soho, the markets of Billingsgate, Smith- 
 field and Covent Garden, what would you say to the 
 emporium we are now about to enter ? Oh ! Rimmel, 
 what would you think of the perfume that surrounds 
 this Eastern mart 9 On either side of the roadway 
 is a row of open-fronted huts, and the goods for sale 
 are exposed either in these open fronts, or under the 
 shelter of a rough thatch, outside. Here is a grain 
 merchant's shop, with its heaps of rice, Indian corn 
 and pulses. Then comes a dealer in spices, &c, with 
 nutmegs, beetul, tobacco, coloured powders for the 
 Hindoo to besmear himself or herself with, assafoetida 
 and other rich spices. The odour of assafoetida is 
 agreeably diversified by that emanating from a 
 
28 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 fishstall next door, where are offered to the public 
 several varieties of the finny tribe that have been out 
 of their native element a day or two more than is 
 good for them. Then we have a shop where sweet- 
 meats are sold. The tempting wares here exposed 
 consist of various combinations of sugar, ghoor (raw 
 sugar with the molasses in it), curds, and ghee (cla- 
 rified butter), and very greasy and uninviting they 
 appear to the uninitiated. Here also are baskets of 
 parched rice steeped in ghoor, parched Indian corn, 
 and unhusked rice prepared like groats, the which 
 are freely eaten by the natives at any time when 
 they cannot procure a meal of boiled rice. This con- 
 fectionery shop, though it tempt not us, is not without 
 its attractions to the native multitude, and has ir- 
 resistible charms for the wasps and hornets. The 
 Gunter who presides over it sits in a cloud of these 
 pleasant insects. ' The bees swarm round his melli- 
 fluous mouth ;' and every sweet, like every rose, has 
 a sting in it. Flies divide empire with wasps and 
 hornets, but then they are to be found everywhere. 
 Covent Garden is only represented in our bazaar by 
 a few hawkers of pumpkins, country beans, radishes 
 (as big as carrots and as hot as mustard), spinach, 
 mangoes, plantains, jack-fruit, custard-apples and, 
 perhaps, pine-apples. But be it not supposed that 
 the fruit for sale is such as would commend itself to 
 English taste. The mango is a fibrous abomination 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 29 
 
 which, if you venture to eat it, leaves in your teeth 
 the material for making several yards of twine, and 
 on your palate a combination of the essences of carrot, 
 geranium and turpentine. The plantain is dry 
 and insipid ; the jack repels you by its scent alone ; 
 the custard-apple is only passable; and the pine- 
 apple is altogether innocent of the rich flavour of its 
 hothouse congener. The new meat-market of London 
 is only represented in our bazaar if there be a suffi- 
 cient Mahomedan population to maintain a butcher's 
 shop. The Hindoos, excepting those of the lowest 
 castes, eat only the flesh of the goat ; some eat no 
 flesh of any kind, and few eat it habitually. Their 
 wants in this direction are supplied by home produce, 
 or they buy a kid and kill it for themselves. If there 
 be a butcher's shop in the bazaar, it is mainly sup- 
 ported by Mahomedans, and its contents are mostly 
 rudely hacked joints and scraps of the goat. 
 
 For the other requirements of the native, besides 
 those of an edible character, there are several shops. 
 There is a cloth merchant's, where are gaudy 
 chintzes, American longcloth, English cloth, and 
 muslins ; a brazier's, where are the brass and copper 
 utensils for cooking and drinking ; a shop where are 
 sold the snakes and general apparatus of the 
 hookah ; a tailor's, whereat may be obtained skull 
 caps, turbans, and the short tight-fitting jacket worn 
 in very full dress ; and a jeweller's, where armlets, 
 
30 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 anklets, and bracelets made of lac, shell, or the baser 
 metals, may be had for a very moderate consideration. 
 Finally there are shops for the sale of tobacco and 
 the intoxicating drugs eaten and smoked by the 
 great majority of the people ; and hovels where is 
 sold the country liquor indulged in by the lower 
 orders openly, and by many of the upper classes sur- 
 reptitiously. The grog-shop frequently affords a very 
 pleasant example of the manners and customs of the 
 Hindoo; for as those who resort to it drink their 
 liquor on the premises, and with only the one idea of 
 getting as intoxicated as possible, it is not uncom- 
 monly surrounded by a small crowd of drunk and 
 incapable customers. 
 
 The wasps and hornets are not the only living 
 creatures that levy toll upon the bazaar shops ; crows 
 hop about from stall to stall, and lose no opportunity 
 of appropriating anything eatable. Now and then a 
 Bhramnee bull (a more than ordinal sacred animal, 
 which is branded in its calfhood with the mark of 
 Hindooism, and turned loose upon society for the rest 
 of its days) stalks majestically into the stores of the 
 grain merchant ; and sometimes a monkey (or, may 
 be, a troop of these active quadrumanas) drops from 
 the roof upon the road below and seizes anything 
 that takes his fancy. The shopkeeper resigns himself 
 to the infliction of these visitants with all composure. 
 The Bhramnee bull and monkeys are inevitable nui- 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 31 
 
 sances of a sacred character that he cannot kill and 
 must therefore endure. The crows are far too astute, 
 not to say too useful in their performances as sca- 
 vengers, to be dealt with capitally. And to inter- 
 fere with the wasps and hornets would involve the 
 necessity of being stung severely. 
 
 If it be the market-day and hour when we ride 
 through the bazaar, it will be with no little difficulty 
 that our horses cleave the mass of men, women and 
 children that throng the road. Buyers, sellers, 
 idlers and beggars have all their senses devoted to 
 the business that brings them there ; and the idea 
 that they are stopping the thoroughfare only comes 
 home to them when a horse's head is in the small of 
 their back, or a rough-shod hoof is upon their toes. 
 The clamour is incessant. Nearly everybody is or 
 seems to be particularly angry ; everybody is talking 
 about pice, or squabbling over a pecuniary difference 
 of something like half a farthing; and yet every- 
 body is enjoying himself or herself thoroughly, 
 according to the popularly received notion of enjoy- 
 ment. There is not much of the picturesque to be 
 seen in this crowd, although so much is said of the 
 Hindoo maiden and her gracefully flowing robes. 
 The men, for the most part, have a piece of cloth 
 •wrapped round their heads as a turban, and round 
 their waists another cloth, which descends to the 
 knee. Many men have even less covering than this; 
 
32 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 some few who have more wear a small tight jacket, 
 or have a chudder (a sort of toga) wrapped round 
 them and cast over the shoulder. The women wear 
 one large sheet (the saree) which partially envelopes 
 them from the neck to the calf of the leg, but not 
 so sufficiently that all the body between these points 
 is properly covered. The colour of the clothes worn 
 by both sexes was originally white, but now varies 
 according to the ideas of cleanliness entertained by 
 the wearers. 
 
 Beyond the village we come to a jheel, or large 
 lake. This sheet of water may be partly fed by 
 some neighbouring river, or may depend for its 
 supply upon springs and the drainage of the country 
 around. It extends for miles in length, and is from 
 half a mile to a mile in width. Here and there 
 upon its bosom may be seen a fisherman in his small 
 boat, or perhaps in a dug-out, a rude canoe made by 
 hollowing out the trunk of one of the palms. In 
 many parts there are thick weeds and long grass, 
 which give cover to the thousands of wild-fowl that 
 visit India in the cold weather months ; and dotted 
 about upon the edge are herds of cattle engaged in 
 cropping the rank pasture of the swamp. Yery 
 poor specimens to exhibit in Islington are the cows, 
 bulls, and bullocks of the Indian herd down south. 
 They are, like the people, undersized, andthey are 
 also, as a rule, underfed. Broken would be the heart 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 33 
 
 of that Devonshire dairymaid who attempted to fill 
 her milking-pail from a Bengallee cow; a teacup 
 would be a more becoming vessel to use, for the 
 yield of milk of an ordinary Bengallee cow is from 
 half a pint to a pint. But quantity compensates for 
 quality, and in some parts of the country the herds 
 of the gwalas, or cowkeepers, are numbered by 
 hundreds. Physically poor creatures and monoton- 
 ously white as to colour, these cattle are driven to 
 and from their grazing- grounds by youthful cowherds, 
 who are yet innocent of tailors' bills, and attended 
 by a swarm of crows, minahs and paddy-birds. The 
 crows and minahs perch upon them and pick out 
 from their ears and elsewhere the flies that have 
 found homes there, and the paddy-birds follow their 
 footsteps and seize upon the insects disturbed by 
 their hoofs. The attentions of the crows, however, 
 extend beyond the lifetime of the animal upon which 
 it waits thus tenderly. When a cow is ill unto 
 death, the crow is all watchfulness by its side. The 
 cowherd has deserted his sick charge and left it to 
 die, but the crow is constant ever, and surveys, with 
 all the gravity and much of the usefulness of a 
 physician, the struggle between life and death. It 
 cannot be said that the crow does much to alleviate 
 the distress or save the existence of its patient, but 
 it ascertains by a few vigorous pecks of its hard 
 beak the precise moment when the cow has breathed 
 
34 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 its last, and proceeds without further delay to give 
 to its friend the only burial rites that Indian cows 
 are accustomed to. It is wonderful how soon any 
 dead animal in India is disposed of, and it is provi- 
 dential that this should be so. A cow is dying, and, 
 save its one or two attendant crows, there is not a 
 flying or four-footed scavenger to be seen. The cow 
 is dead, and from the blue vault above there come 
 down upon the carcase many vultures ; from every 
 point of the compass arrive the crows ; and the mass 
 of winged life thus collected is shortly disturbed by 
 the arrival of the jackal and ravenous pariah dog. 
 In the course of a few hours an imperfect skeleton 
 only remains of what was once a milky mother of 
 the herd. 
 
 Lakes such as that we now look upon are common 
 enough in the south. They never fail in their 
 supply of water, as do those of the north ; and in 
 the wet season they are, in some parts, not to be 
 distinguished from the country around. In Bengal, 
 when the land is inundated, it is sometimes possible 
 to take a boat for miles straight across country, over 
 what was once cultivation, garden or grazing land, 
 and through the villages. When the floods are very 
 severe, the people in the neighbourhood of the rivers 
 may be seen sitting on the roofs of their houses, 
 helplessly surveying the waters that have taken 
 possession of the interior. Occasionally the em- 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 35 
 
 bankment of some river subject to rapid rises, such, 
 as the Damoodah, gives way, and the waters pour over 
 the land for miles ; or, if in the vicinity of the sea, 
 a tidal wave lays waste the country, and fills the 
 tanks with brackish water unfit for drinking pur- 
 poses. To the native this is all very unpleasant and 
 often very disastrous, but then it is Msmat, and that 
 ought to satisfy him. It is far from satisfactory to 
 have his crops, his house, his cattle, and, perhaps, 
 two or three of his children swept away by an inun- 
 dation ; but then, he argues, inundations, like epi- 
 demics, are sent by the Supreme Being, and he must 
 take them as they come. It does not occur to him 
 that he may adopt protective measures against future 
 visitations, and he sees the floods of one year depart 
 without the most remote idea of being better pre- 
 pared for those of the future. 
 
 For the rest of our ride the country is only a 
 repetition of what we have seen already. The most 
 striking feature throughout is the extent to which 
 water exists : in the lakes, in the tanks and in the 
 rice fields, on the road, anywhere and everywhere 
 there is water. The most agreeable feature is the 
 freshness of the verdure. There is green grass 
 (further north, if there is grass at all, it is brown or 
 red), and there are green trees whatever the season 
 for the grass, and, with few exceptions, the trees are 
 evergreens. But the picturesqueness of the scene 
 
 D 2 • 
 
36 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 is marred by its flatness and monotony; and the 
 faculty of admiring such beauty as may be found 
 is weakened by the muggy atmosphere that sur- 
 rounds the spectator. Leaving the subject of the 
 scene we are viewing, let us consider the dramatis 
 persona? who act upon it. We have seen the crowd 
 in the bazaar and briefly described it. We also 
 meet herdsmen and cultivators at their work ; many 
 women in gangs going to the river to bathe or bring 
 water for household purposes ; a few men pursuing 
 their avocations about the villages, or travelling 
 from place to place ; and several children engaged in 
 the fascinating employment of plastering as many 
 inches of dirt upon their naked forms as those naked 
 forms will carry. We meet a Baboo on a small pony 
 (called a tattoo) of nine and a half hands. The Baboo 
 is stout ; it does not befit his dignity to appear 
 on foot ; and it is no easy matter to him to get out of 
 his padded saddle, but he mistakes one of us for the 
 magistrate of the district, and tumbles off his horse 
 to prostrate himself before us. Being undeceived, 
 the Baboo is no longer remarkably civil ; he ceases 
 the prostration business, and climbs upon his pony 
 again with an injured air, and as much expedition 
 as he is capable of. We have wronged him, in that 
 we have unintentionally obtained from him civility 
 only given to those in authority, and he goes off 
 mumbling something that is neither a blessing upon, 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 37 
 
 nor a compliment to, us. We meet a marriage pro- 
 cession. A youthful couple whose combined ages 
 may aggregate thirteen years are carried in a palan- 
 quin. These are the bride and bridegroom, and they 
 are tricked out in all the tawdry finery that the means 
 and bad taste of the relatives could cover them with. 
 They are preceded by a band of unmusical instru- 
 ments of the drum and serpent order, and followed 
 by as many friends, horses and elephants as can be 
 brought together. It is a great feature to have as 
 many equestrian followers as possible, but the mar- 
 riage which is distinguished by many elephants in its 
 procession commences under the happiest auspices. 
 It has nothing to do with the future of the married 
 couple that they are tied together before they have 
 reached an age at which it is possible to discriminate 
 upon any subject more serious than the flavour of 
 sweetmeats. The parents have got together a goodly 
 array of horses, elephants, drums, trumpets, &c; 
 they have spent three years' income upon the marriage 
 ceremony; they have feed Brahmins and fed faqueers ; 
 and their concern with the nuptials ends with the 
 epithalamium. A few years hence the bridegroom 
 will carry off his bride to become the mother of his 
 children and the slave of his household. He will 
 not care for her half as much as for his horse, sup- 
 posing him to possess such an animal, and she will 
 give back his regard measure for measure. And 
 
38 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 again a few years and they, in their turn, will be 
 uniting their sons and daughters after a similar 
 fashion to the daughters and sons of their neighbours. 
 This is very much the manner in which native 
 marriages are contracted throughout Hindostan ; 
 exceptions are to be found among the Mahomedans, 
 among some of the Hindoo castes, and among some of 
 the other and smaller races, but early marriage is the 
 rule, and unhappy results the general consequence. 
 Leaving this marriage procession, we come across a 
 procession by which the majesty of the law is vindi- 
 cated. A police-inspector with his myrmidons are 
 escorting a dozen prisoners to the nearest police- 
 post. There has been a robbery somewhere, and the 
 police-inspector, with that singular detective ability 
 which characterises the Indian constabulary, has 
 followed up the wrong track and acted upon the 
 wrong information, until all traces of the crime and 
 criminals have been completely effaced. The corpus 
 delicti is no more to be discovered now than would 
 be the body of Harold, if we went to look for that on 
 the field of Hastings. But it will not do to admit 
 that the instruments of justice are as blind as justice 
 herself, and so the police-inspector has seized upon 
 a few of the worst characters of the neighbourhood 
 and is leading them off, hopeful that a few hours' 
 confinement and, possibly, a slight exhibition of 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 39 
 
 rattan or thumbscrew, may do what detective powers 
 failed to accomplish. 
 
 We see all these specimens of the southern people, 
 and they show us that the Indian of the South is in 
 complexion dark (varying, however, in this respect 
 from what is described as ' wheaten' to black), in 
 stature small, and in build slight and puny. If he be t>^ 
 well to do — that is to say, if he can afford the luxury 
 of indolence, combined with a diet in which milk and 
 sugar enter largely — he is fat and bloated ; but he is 
 in this form more unsightly, and no stronger, than 
 the most emaciated of his kind. He is a thorough V 
 coward, though he can bear the inevitable with the 
 stoicism of the Spartan ; he is a fawning slave who \f. y 
 can be a grinding tyrant ; he is avaricious though '■f GJ £_ AlM l, 
 lavish ; cunning and simple ; patient and yet easily 
 moved to anger ; treacherous though often blindly 
 faithful ; and his life is spent in the wildest faith in 
 fatality, and a besotted belief in the perfection of 
 things as they are. All human creatures are more 
 or less psychological curiosities, but the Indian of 
 the South is peculiarly so, and the contradiction of 
 character is, perhaps, greater in Bengal than else- 
 where. Most of our readers will remember Macau- 
 lay's description of the cunning of the Bengallee ; 
 and what Macaulay said of this characteristic might 
 also be said of his cowardice and other peculiarities. 
 No one would dream of enlisting a Bengallee into our 
 
40 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 native army — least of all would the Bengallee him- 
 self dream of such a proceeding — yet tell him that 
 he is sentenced to be hanged, and his lip will not 
 quiver or his hand shake ; lead him forth to execution, 
 or to some painful surgical operation, and he will go 
 through the ordeal with as much equanimity as 
 though death and pain were matters of everyday 
 experience to him ; and so with much more that is 
 contradictory in him. That he has his good points 
 unstained by some collateral vice must be freely ad- 
 mitted. It must be conceded to him that he is ad- 
 mirable in his conduct towards his family. Sometimes 
 a wife is ill-used. Occasionally a father who has 
 contracted the bad habit of omitting to die has his 
 departure from the world facilitated : and now and 
 then an uncle or brother, or some such relation, who 
 is in the way is put out of it : but, as a rule, the 
 Bengallee (and, for the matter of that, the native 
 generally) is excellent from a domestic point of view. 
 His roof shelters any parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, 
 aunts, and widowed female relatives, who may be 
 dependent upon him; and as the re-marriage of 
 widows is not permitted by Hindoo law, the sys- 
 tem of early marriages throws many young widows 
 upon the bounty of their kindred, and tries the hospi- 
 tality of the Hindoo to the last degree. 
 
 Fortunately for the Indian of the South, his wants 
 are few. His clothes, as we have described them, 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 41 
 
 never cost much — for the first ten or twelve years 
 of his life they cost nothing. His food consists of two 
 — possibly only one — meal of boiled rice a day, relieved 
 occasionally by a vegetable curry, some fish of doubt- 
 ful freshness, or a piece of kid's flesh. He can and 
 does sustain the existence of himself and family on 
 something like two shillings a head per month, and 
 this very moderate expenditure includes the cost 
 of the tobacco, which, in the family hubble-bubble, is 
 smoked by all the household of both sexes and of 
 every age from three upwards. Under such con- 
 ditions as we have described, is it to be wondered at 
 that the Indian of the South is a poor weak creature ? 
 Let us now take a flight of some thousand or fif- 
 teen hundred miles, and look at the country of the 
 Rohilla, or Seikh. We are in quite another climate 
 up here, and, if we take our ride in the cold weather, 
 there is no occasion to start betimes in the morning, 
 unless we want to see the frost on the ground. 
 When we do go forth, it is in a country very different 
 from that of the south. There are wide sheets of 
 cultivation here also ; but wheat and barley are 
 grown instead of rice, and the standing crops do not 
 require several inches of water to keep them alive. 
 The country is dry, the grass has lost the short-lived 
 verdure of the rainy season, and there is none of that 
 wilderness of jungle, and only a few of the palms founc* 
 in lower Hindostan. There are undulations in the 
 
42 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 landscape here and there. There are large lakes too ; 
 bnt these are more manageable pieces of water, and 
 do not at any time overspread the conntry about, 
 although in dry seasons, when they have been scantily 
 supplied by drainage and heavily drawn upon for 
 irrigation, they are apt to assume the appearance of 
 the land in their vicinity. Dryness instead of damp 
 is the general feature of the north. We are in the 
 country where drought, not inundation, is the dread 
 of the landowner and agriculturist. The crops may 
 fail from an insufficient rain-fall. In late years 
 they have frequently so suffered ; but the farmer 
 rarely sees them injured by excessive rain, and, save 
 in the very low lands upon the banks of rivers, never 
 sees them swept away by floods. The rivers vary as 
 to depth and width in the different seasons very con- 
 siderably. In the dry season the Ganges, Jumna, 
 Indus, and other rivers of the north, flow clear and 
 smooth in small channels between wide beds of sand. 
 In the rains they spread over the sand up to the 
 banks beyond, and pour down, boiling, turbulent and 
 muddy, with all the force of a mill-sluice ; but they 
 do not rise above the level of the surrounding 
 country, and the Hindoo who bathes in the sacred 
 waters of Gunga Mah (or the maternal Ganges) has 
 not to reflect that this holy stream may at any time 
 in the rains wash him and his off the face of the 
 earth. As we ride on, we see that the country is 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 43 
 
 sufficiently wooded (always supposing that we are 
 not in the extreme west or north-west). The open 
 area is broken by single trees, or clumps of two or 
 three trees, scattered here and there. The villages 
 have a few trees and shrubs about their wells and 
 gardens ; and now and again we see a large grove, 
 chiefly consisting of mangoes, planted in lines, in the 
 grateful shelter of which the traveller halts, or the 
 Anglo-Indian official pitches his tent when on tour. 
 But we see no more that unbroken horizon of tree 
 and grove which we found down south, and the dense 
 undergrowth that there festered round every village 
 and covered every spot left untouched by the plough 
 is here unknown. The villages are healthier-looking 
 and better built. The houses are mostly made of 
 mud, with flat mud roofs ; but there are many of brick 
 among them, and they stand out, clean-looking and 
 comparatively substantial, in the scene, undisguised 
 by a sea of bough and foliage. In many instances 
 the villages are built, as it were, in terraces, con- 
 verging to a common centre, and, so constructed, 
 they tower above the plain like forts ; some, indeed, 
 have other and closer resemblance than this to forts 
 (for we are in a country where war was not so very 
 remotely carried on, and where, until British rule 
 prevailed, every man was ready enough to draw his 
 sword against his neighbour), and there yet remain 
 around some peaceful hamlets the ruins of battle- 
 
44 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 ments, or the indications of what was once a fosse. 
 For the architectural plan of the houses we cannot 
 say much that is favourable. Windows and doors 
 are much as they are in the south, and the court- 
 yards about the houses are smaller ; but then the 
 residents can enjoy the fresh air sitting on their 
 roofs ; and as most of the roofs are pierced to emit 
 the smoke of fires burnt inside, those within doors, if 
 they suffer from insufficient ventilation, are not 
 smokedried like their southern brethren. 
 
 One very noticeable feature of the northern land- 
 scape, as distinguishing it from that of the south, is 
 the occasional plain of sandy waste that is to be 
 met with. Except the babul tree, and this only 
 sparsely, nothing grows on these plains, and some- 
 times one looks across two or three miles of barren 
 land, white with the efflorescence of various salts, 
 without seeing any object to relieve the eye saVe, 
 perhaps, a herd of antelopes, or a few passing carts or 
 wayfarers. Yery uncomfortable places are these 
 plains at all times. In the hot weather they look 
 like huge lime-kilns ; and there may be seen upon 
 them, as in the great Sahara, that phenomenon, the 
 mirage. Exceedingly beautiful is the delusive sce- 
 nery of the mirage ; but we cannot take beauty so 
 evanescent into consideration, and it must be admitted 
 that these plains, though admirable galloping ground, 
 are very far from being picturesque. 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 45 
 
 Tanks are not so commonly seen in the north, as 
 in the south ; but there is good reason for this. In 
 the south, where water is almost at the surface, it is 
 only necessary to excavate a few feet, and throw up 
 the earth so as to form an embankment around, and 
 the tank is made. In the north the springs are not 
 arrived at so easily, and the work is one of time and 
 expenditure. But what tanks there are (and there 
 are many) are large and well made ; and not unfre- 
 quently they are lasting structures, walled in with 
 good masonry, and surrounded by solid flights of 
 steps, and covered bathing-places. The native of the 
 north, however, is, to a great extent, independent of 
 this supply of water, for he ordinarily uses the water 
 drawn from his village well for all his requirements, 
 whereas in the south, well-water is little used for 
 any purpose, and cannot with any safety be drunk. 
 
 Pursuing our course along the road (which road, 
 we may observe, unless it be a metalled one, is 
 probably knee deep in light sand and cut up by cart- 
 tracks like that described in the south) we notice 
 these features of the landscape, and fail to draw from 
 them any deduction favourable to the idea that the 
 scenery of the north is more picturesque than that 
 of the south. If superiority in this respect is to be con- 
 ceded to any part, it must be given to the lower pro- 
 vinces. But when we consider the people who inhabit 
 the north,there is little doubt as to our bestowal of the 
 

 46 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 palm. We are now among a manly race, and many 
 of the better class who pass us are stalwart and 
 soldierly-looking men, who would become a military 
 uniform well enough. Among the cultivators we see 
 some who are undersized and in poor condition, but 
 generally the people of all orders and both sexes are 
 far superior in physique to the people of the south. 
 There is an independent self-reliant air about them 
 which it is pleasant to see ; and if they are not as 
 cringingly polite as our Baboo friend, they are, at 
 least, more genuine in such courtesy as they do favour 
 us with. In stature they are some inches taller, and 
 in build they are much stouter, than the Bengallee. 
 \ In complexion they are much fairer, many being little 
 ^darker than the bronzed peasant of Naples or Sicily. 
 If we ride into a bazaar hereaway we shall doubt- 
 less see many of the sights and smell all the odours 
 that we met with in the lower country, but we shall 
 also find more that is interesting. The crowd assem- 
 bled is engaged in the same noisy chaffering about 
 small fractions of a penny, and equally oblivious of 
 the fact that it blocks up the thoroughfare ; but it is 
 a picturesque one to look upon ; and if we survey it 
 from the artist's point of view we shall find much 
 in it to admire. Men, women and children are all 
 more substantially dressed, and there is considerable 
 contrast in colour to be found in their costume. 
 The cloth worn by the men round their loins covers 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 4? 
 
 them nearly to the ankle, though many wear tight 
 trousers instead of this ; the jacket or a long coat 
 (or chuphan) is almost invariably worn ; round their 
 waists is a large cloth, the Jcumurbund; on their 
 heads is the turban; and over their shoulders the 
 loose hanging sheet. The women wear petticoats or 
 trousers, and the saree above. The loin-cloths of the 
 men are often dyed yellow, the petticoats of the 
 women dark blue ; but the colours of these garments 
 vary, and red, blue, pink, green, puce, and other 
 tints are to be seen effectively mixed in all the 
 apparel of the groups before us. 
 
 If the goods exposed for sale in this bazaar do not 
 differ very materially from what we have already 
 seen, there is a wide difference in the architectural 
 features of the shops. These are stronger and more 
 regularly built. If the bazaar be a large one, they 
 may be two-storeyed structures ; and the road between 
 them is wider. Perhaps, as we pass through we meet 
 a string of camels bringing from Cabul dried fruits, 
 goat's hair, and camel-hair cloths, grapes packed in 
 layers of cotton in small wooden boxes, walnuts, and 
 Persian cats. Very dirty but athletic-looking are the 
 Affghans who accompany these caravans. Cleanliness 
 is with them a long way off from godliness, unless 
 the latter be very low down in the scale ; for it is 
 said, with every appearance of truth, that the 
 Affghan never changes the suit of clothes he has 
 
50 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 will ride for hours or take violent exercise while 
 hawking or shooting for his amusement. He is not 
 a coward. Time was when, as a matter of every- 
 day existence, he went forth to fight a outrance 
 about some disputed boundary. In the Punjaub 
 there yet live those who in the Seikh campaigns 
 fought with the British upon more than one hard- 
 won field. In the North-west Provinces and Oude 
 and elsewhere, northwards, are many whose fathers 
 fought for us and fought well, and not a few who 
 are now ready to enlist if their services should be 
 required. He is a fatalist and submits to the in- 
 evitable with sufficient philosophy, but he is not 
 afraid to voluntarily seek danger that is not thrust 
 upon him, nor altogether above protecting himself 
 against such visitations as fate may send. He is 
 not so cunning and untruthful. It is true that he 
 will lie when it is necessary for his own ends that he 
 should do so; that he will deceive where deceit 
 appears to be required to gain his object : he is an 
 Asiatic, and, as such, has no compunction on these 
 scores ; but he is not systematically and gratuitously 
 false like the Bengallee, to whom truth would too 
 often appear to be an evil only to be adopted where 
 untruth has completely failed. In his views as to 
 progress he is little less conservative. Agricultural 
 exhibitions are held under Government auspices 
 throughout the country, with the object of stimu- 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 51 
 
 lating the native to improve his manner of culti- 
 vation and the breed of his cattle, but he pursues 
 the even tenour of his way much as his great-grand- 
 father did before him, and his great-grandson may 
 do hereafter. He sees irrigation pumps, improved 
 ploughs, and other superior instruments of agriculture 
 exhibited, but they suggest nothing practical to his 
 mind, and he goes back to his fields to use the rough 
 implements employed centuries ago. He accepts the 
 advantages afforded by English progress without any 
 notion of making progress himself. If a railway be 
 within reach of him, he travels by it as a matter of 
 course ; but he gives little heed to the wonders of the 
 iron road, and would be quite satisfied if Watts and 
 Stephenson had never existed, or if railways were to 
 be abolished. In his domestic relations he is much 
 what we have described the southerner; he is, 
 perhaps, not quite so ready to dispose of any incon- 
 venient relative, but he is equally prompt to support 
 those relations who may be dependent upon him. 
 His matrimonial arrangements are not more pro- 
 pitious, for he, too, is the victim of an early mar- 
 riage ; his wife is little more than a household J 
 drudge, who is useful in the way of keeping up his' 
 race, but utterly untaught, untrusted, and uncaredi 
 for. After a fashion, he is civil enough to this 
 necessary feminine piece of household property, but 
 he is no placens uxor of indulgence and consideration 
 
 K 2 
 
52 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 He will allow her to carry a four-year-old child on 
 one hip and the family bundle on her head, when 
 they go upon a journey together, while he walks on 
 ahead with no heavier burden than his staff, or, may 
 be, the family hookah ; and it is barely possible that 
 he would send her forth to perform many of the 
 duties of husbandry if he could only trust her 
 sufficiently. But it is unnecessary to describe the 
 native of the north so far as he resembles the 
 inhabitant of the south, and, having described the 
 main points of divergence in their character, we 
 will avoid repetition b} r turning to the consideration 
 of another subject. 
 
 To a great extent we have been obliged to gene- 
 ralise in what we have said of the characteristics of 
 the country and people in northern and southern 
 India. We have endeavoured to give, as briefly as 
 possible, a general view of the most marked features 
 that suggest themselves ; and to do this within the 
 space allowed us here it has been necessary to 
 overlook much in the way of detail that may be 
 subsequently introduced to the notice of our readers. 
 It is certainly no easy task to convey an accurate 
 idea of a land like India to the minds of those who 
 have never visited it. The vast extent of the country, 
 the many differences of climate, people, and modes 
 of life to be found in the several provinces into which 
 Hindostan is subdivided ; the very wealth of matter 
 
A VIEW OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA. 53 
 
 upon which to write, constitute the difficulties of the 
 writer who would depict this great possession of 
 England. But we hope, at least, to be able to show, 
 with some degree of accuracy, what life (more 
 especially life as the Anglo-Indian sees it) is in 
 India ; and to this end what we have said in this 
 chapter will serve us very considerably. 
 
54 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 INDIA EIGHTY TEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 
 
 In considering India from a social point of view, we 
 must divide the subject into three epochs. The early- 
 period when, the overland route not yet being dis- 
 covered, communication with England was a matter of 
 months instead of days ; twenty or thirty years im- 
 mediately preceding the mutiny of 1857 ; and the 
 present time. To the first of these we must give our 
 exclusive attention at some length. The second can 
 be treated of when we describe social India as it is at 
 this day. 
 
 One hundred years ago the manners and customs 
 of the English in England were widely different from 
 what we find them to-day. In India, a century ago, 
 the Anglo-Indian bore but a faint and merely super- 
 ficial resemblance to the Anglo-Indian of the present 
 time. From the Governor-General down to the 
 humblest junior factor at a factory ; from the veteran 
 commandant to the junior ensign, the Englishmen in 
 India in the middle of the eighteenth century no 
 more resembled their descendants of the nineteenth 
 
JXDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 55 
 
 century than the Norman horseman who fought at 
 Hastings resembled the present proprietor of the 
 acres won under the banner of William the bastard. 
 To some extent the Anglo-Indian of 1760-70 did 
 observe the fashions, manners, and customs prevail- 
 ing at that time in England. But the new and 
 evanescent fashions had lost their novelty during the 
 six or seven months' voyage round the Cape, and the 
 manners and customs had to be adapted to a climate 
 which rendered much that attached, as' a matter of 
 course, to every-day life in England simply impossible. 
 In some instances, the Anglo-Indian of that period 
 went beyond his compatriot at home ; in others, he 
 could only feebly imitate him. Within the walls of 
 Fort William it was as easy — uay, easier — to drink 
 too much wine as it was under the roof-tree of a 
 London tavern. A duel could as well come off, 
 provided that an early hour were selected, near the 
 large banyan tree on the Calcutta race-course as it 
 could in Batter sea fields. And the Anglo-Indian of 
 the period did drink and fight his duel with as perfect 
 satisfaction as though he had not been exiled from his 
 native land. But there were many things that he 
 could not do, or could only do incompletely. He 
 could not enjoy the pleasures of the society of his 
 fellow- countrywomen upon as large a scale as he had 
 been accustomed to in the country of his birth. 
 Englishwomen were scarce. It was not the fashion 
 
56 LIFE IX INDIA. 
 
 of the time to encourage them to come out by marry- 
 ing them when they arrived, and few English ladies 
 were adventurous enough to go out to a distant coun- 
 try where a bad climate and indifferent society were 
 combined with a wretched matrimonial market. A 
 select few did venture and were successful. There 
 were English wives ruling Anglo-Indian homes even 
 ■then. But the majority of the men lived in single 
 blessedness, or substituted for the civilised chain of 
 Hymen the barbarous fetters of zenana life. In 
 regard to literature, there was at that time in India 
 a sad dearth. There was no local English journal of 
 repute — for journalism could hardly exist in a land 
 which was only opened to those who were licensed 
 to enter it, and where freedom of the press was 
 unknown. There was little English literature of any 
 kind except a dull Government Gazette ; for the few 
 who were in the country had other and more remu- 
 nerative occupation than writing. TKere was no 
 native literature, even for those who understood the 
 language sufficiently to appreciate it ; and it was idle 
 to attempt to introduce into India any English 
 writings except those few standard works the interest 
 of which survived a voyage that might be got through 
 in six months, or might be protracted indefinitely. 
 There was no adequate substitute for club life where 
 society was so restricted in number, so scattered as 
 to position, and so completely separated by the diffi- 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 57 
 
 cutties of communication. And there was only a 
 feeble show of the amusements of the day when 
 nearly everything in the way of diversion had to be 
 projected by amateurs, whose time was principally 
 taken up in stirring the waters of Pactolus. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Anglo-Indian, even 
 then, clung with some degree of tenacity to his 
 English associations. It is said that, go where he 
 will, the Briton of the present takes with him his 
 Worcester sauce, Bass's beer, and Murray's Guide- 
 book ; and the Briton of 1770, being condemned to 
 spend the best days of his existence in India, did, no 
 doubt, similarly yearn after the pleasures of English 
 life. He was excluded by a dreary waste of sea from 
 the joys of drinking pump water, flirting, and dancing 
 at the wells ; from my lady Betty Spadille's card par- 
 ties in Russell Square ; from the jovial society of the 
 cocoa-club or coffee-house, and from all the fascin- 
 ations of London life. But he did his best to have the 
 shadows of those good things, the substance of which 
 was denied to him, and was so far like his modern 
 representative. At the same time, however, he 
 adopted much of the custom of the natives, and fell 
 in with the habits of the country to an extent which 
 is now utterly unknown. His domestic life was too 
 frequently conducted on the native system, and the 
 influence of zenana society told upon his character, 
 or directed his mode of living in many ways. 
 
58 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 But what influenced the character of the Anglo- 
 Indian of that day more than this intercourse with 
 the dark-skinned and darker-minded houris of the 
 harem was his peculiar position in the country quoad 
 the natives subject more or less to him, and the 
 masters (the Honourable E. I. Co.), to whose orders 
 he was, professedly, subordinate. When Warren 
 Hastings governed India, the idea of swaying the 
 country as rulers was yet new to us, and the ruling 
 power still adhered to its trading interests. We had 
 only recently secured our position in the south from 
 the attack of the French and wrested from our Gallic 
 rivals that territory lying between the Eiver Kistnah 
 and Cape Comorin, of which Dupleix was nomina- 
 ted governor. We had but yesterda} r deposed the 
 Nuwaub Nazim of Bengal, our implacable foe Suraj- 
 oo-dowlah, and placed a creature of our own and a 
 traitor to his countrymen on the throne of Moorshe- 
 dabad. We still admitted the superiority of the title 
 of the Mogul, thongh our obeisance before the Delhi 
 throne was but an empty form ; and we had as yet 
 acquired no territorial possession whatever in Nor- 
 thern India. A few years since, and the natives 
 had seen the power of the English all but crushed in 
 every part of India. In 1748 Dupleix, supporting 
 the claims of Mirzapha Jung and Chunda Sahib to 
 the sovereignty of the Deccan and Carnatic, had 
 triumphed over the English and their allies, Nazir 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 59 
 
 Jung and Anaverdy Khan, and made the French flag 
 dominant in the Madras Presidency. In 1756 
 Suraj-oo-dowlah had, apparently, conquered us finally 
 in Bengal. And now that Warren Hastings was 
 Governor, they saw the British power established on 
 a firmer basis than ever, the French possessions 
 reduced to one or two small trading towns, and the 
 house of our enemy, Suraj-oo-dowlah, deposed and 
 almost annihilated. Is' it to be wondered at that 
 they were impressed by the indomitable courage and 
 perseverance of their European conquerors, and that, 
 until they learnt, in later years, how conquest can be 
 tempered by moderation, they held their lives and 
 fortunes to be at the disposal of the English ? 
 
 The history of British administration in India 
 during the time of Clive and Warren Hastings has 
 material in it for half a dozen romances. Few novels 
 possess half the interest, even in respect of incident, 
 that is to be found in Macaulay's essays on the 
 lives of these two great men. A clerk in Madras is 
 called upon by the exigencies of the time to cast 
 down the pen and draw the sword; his military 
 genius is recognised at once ; his successes are 
 brilliant almost beyond parallel ; and he becomes a 
 distinguished general and diplomatist while yet in 
 the very spring of manhood. What travel-stained, 
 hero of G. P. E. James's creation ever occupied a 
 position more romantic and perilous than that of 
 
58 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 But what influenced the character of the Anglo- 
 Indian of that day more than this intercourse with 
 the dark-skinned and darker-minded houris of the 
 harem was his peculiar position in the country quoad 
 the natives subject more or less to him, and the 
 masters (the Honourable E. I. Co.), to whose orders 
 he was, professedly, subordinate. When Warren 
 Hastings governed India, the idea of swaying the 
 country as rulers was yet new to us, and the ruling 
 power still adhered to its trading interests. We had 
 only recently secured our position in the south from 
 the attack of the French and wrested from our Gallic 
 rivals that territory lying between the River Kistnah 
 and Cape Comorin, of which Dupleix was nomina- 
 ted governor. We had but yesterday deposed the 
 Nuwaub Nazim of Bengal, our implacable foe Suraj- 
 oo-dowlah, and placed a creature of our own and a 
 traitor to his countrymen on the throne of Moorshe- 
 dabad. We still admitted the superiority of the title 
 of the Mogul, though our obeisance before the Delhi 
 throne was but an empty form ; and we had as yet 
 acquired no territorial possession whatever in Nor- 
 thern India. A few years since, and the natives 
 had seen the power of the English all but crushed in 
 every part of India. In 1748 Dupleix, supporting 
 the claims of Mirzapha Jung and Chunda Sahib to 
 the sovereignty of the Deccan and Carnatic, had 
 triumphed over the English and their allies, Nazir 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 59 
 
 Jung and Anaverdy Khan, and made the French flag 
 dominant in the Madras Presidency. In 1756 
 Suraj-oo-dowlah had, apparently, conquered us finally 
 in Bengal. And now that Warren Hastings was 
 Governor, they saw the British power established on 
 a firmer basis than ever, the French possessions 
 reduced to one or two small trading towns, and the 
 house of our enemy, Suraj-oo-dowlah, deposed and 
 almost annihilated. Is' it to be wondered at that 
 they were impressed by the indomitable courage and 
 perseverance of their European conquerors, and that, 
 until they learnt, in later years, how conquest can be 
 tempered by moderation, they held their lives and 
 fortunes to be at the disposal of the English ? 
 
 The history of British administration in India 
 during the time of Clive and Warren Hastings has 
 material in it for half a dozen romances. Few novels 
 possess half the interest, even in respect of incident, 
 that is to be found in Macaulay's essays on the 
 lives of these two great men. A clerk in Madras is 
 called upon by the exigencies of the time to cast 
 down the pen and draw the sword; his military 
 genius is recognised at once ; his successes are 
 brilliant almost beyond parallel ; and he becomes a 
 distinguished general and diplomatist while yet in 
 the very spring of manhood. What travel-stained, 
 hero of G. P. E. James's creation ever occupied a 
 position more romantic and perilous than that of 
 
60 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Clive when, on the bank of the Bhagirutty, he 
 debated whether he should give battle to Suraj-oo- 
 dowlah on the field of Plassey ? Having at his com- 
 mand a small force barely numbering 3,000 of all 
 arms, and that small bodey principally comprisd of 
 native sepoys, he had to determine whether he would 
 meet an army of ten times his own strength. It is 
 true that he had bought over Meer Jaflir, who had 
 engaged to desert to the British with his troops 
 when the battle commenced. But the mercenary who 
 became an ally by one act of treachery might well 
 fail at the last moment by another, and the assistance 
 of Meer Jaflir was but a broken reed to lean upon. 
 The council of war called together by Clive voted 
 against giving the enemy battle, and Clive, moved 
 then by prudential considerations, voted with the 
 majority. But on second thoughts he determined to 
 risk all. He took his small army into the field, and 
 won a victory which made India ours in the face of 
 odds that might have deterred any hero of romance 
 from attempting such a chance. Is there not matter 
 enough for a ' sensation ' novel in that forged treaty 
 by which the heart of Oomachund, the intriguing 
 banker of Moorshedabad, was broken, and the 
 character of Clive stained ? Clive, unable to win the 
 assistance of Oomachund, save upon impossible terms, 
 enters into a treaty with him. It is not intended by 
 Clive that this treaty shall be adhered to after the 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 61 
 
 occasion calling for it is passed. But there is among 
 Olive's council one who has an idea of political 
 morality, which was not always entertained at that 
 time. This too-particular member will not sign the 
 spurious document, and Clive, whose conscience is 
 more elastic, forges the name of his scrupulous 
 associate. Clive secures all that the assistance of 
 Oomachund can give him, and then comes the denoue- 
 ment. The treaty which Oomachund has seen is not 
 the genuine one : the crafty Bengallee has been out- 
 witted in his own fashion by the astute Englishman ; 
 and, possibly, disgust at this as much as disappoint- 
 ment causes that deceived old man to fall senseless 
 when the facts of the case are made known to him. 
 
 And Warren Hastings ; — is there not incident 
 enough for romance in his career ? Now a prisoner 
 in the hands of the natives at Benares, he escapes 
 by a series of happy chances from what appeared in- 
 evitable death. Now settling by duel with Francis 
 the disputes of the council chamber. Now in the 
 minority in that council, resigning, or being driven 
 from, his position as Governor-General only to acquire 
 a majority and depose his successor nominated by 
 the Court of Directors. Now, with the aid of Sir 
 Elijah Impey, removing by a judical sentence his 
 arch enemy Nuncoomar, who was hanged nomin- 
 ally for forgery (of which he was indubitably guilty), 
 but, there is reason to think, really for his offence 
 
62 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 against Warren Hastings in that he was leagued 
 with Francis and others of the Council against the 
 Governor- General. These incidents are not given 
 in chronological sequence, but as they suggest them- 
 selves to our mind ; and we do not dwell upon them 
 at any length, because they only collaterally attach 
 to our subject — India socially considered. But to 
 some extent they do affect the matter under discus- 
 sion, for they serve to illustrate the method by which 
 the natives under British rule in the last century 
 were taught to believe the power of their rulers to be 
 paramount, and some of them are fitting examples 
 of the political morality and independence of that 
 period. 
 
 Ill-paid, only feebly governed by the Court of 
 Directors at home, and with power nearly unlimited 
 over the natives, the servants of the Company, where 
 their consciences permitted, built up fortunes which 
 were based on the weakness of the conquered people. 
 To Clive and Hastings rich treasuries were opened, 
 with the request that these Governors would help 
 themselves. Both took handsome fortunes from 
 these caves of Aladdin, and one of them subsequently 
 expressed his astonishment that, being so tempted, 
 he had not taken more. While at the orders of the 
 Directors money was wrung out of the country to be 
 sent home, those who were employed in India for this 
 purpose seized the opportunity of enriching them- 
 selves. The Directors used the advice of Horace on 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 63 
 
 this point, and for their own ends. The Indian rnlers 
 were to get money, honestly if they could, but they 
 were, at all events, to get money. And the Indian 
 rulers did get money, with more or less honesty, ac- 
 cording to circumstances, both for the Company and 
 themselves. In the course of time the scandal of this, 
 system became too palpable to escape attention ; and 
 Warren Hastings in his later administration, and sub- 
 sequently Lord Cornwallis, effected what they could 
 in the direction of reform. The pay of the Company's 
 servants was very substantially increased. The 
 Government no longer tacitly admitted the right of 
 every man to help himself. But many years passed 
 before the Government officials entirely abandoned 
 their privilege of receiving such gifts ( 6 nuzzurs, 9 in 
 the language of India, ' bribes,' in the language of 
 fact) as were offered by the natives whom they could 
 either injure or oblige. The Pagoda tree, the upas 
 to official morality, continued for some time to yield 
 a tolerable crop to those who shook it. And lavish 
 in their expenditure while in India, most of the 
 Company's servants succeeded in amassing goodly 
 fortunes to bring home with them. 
 
 A very good idea of the social life of India 
 from 1784 to 1797 is given by selections from the 
 6 Calcutta Gazette ' and ' Oriental Advertiser,' edited 
 by Mr. W. S. Seton-Karr, President of the Bengal 
 Eecord Commission ; and we will proceed to look 
 into these. The 'Calcutta Gazette' and 'Oriental 
 
64 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Advertiser ' was published under the sanction and 
 authority of the Governor- General and Council, and 
 was made the vehicle for all Government notifi- 
 cations and advertisements. It commenced as a 
 weekly, and, though almost monopolising the field 
 of journalism, was but a very puny literary dwarf. 
 The idea of any paper succeeding under any sort of 
 Government control is inconsistent with our notions 
 of that freedom of the press which is requisite for 
 the expression of public opinion ; and the editor of 
 this Indian paper, with a long name and very short 
 editorial matter, must have had a very hard time of 
 it. As an instance of what this suffering scribe 
 had to contend against, we quote a Government 
 notification, which, bearing date February 10, 1785, 
 is published in the offending journal : 
 
 We are directed by the Honourable the Governor-General 
 and Council to express their entire disapprobation of some 
 extracts from English newspapers which appeared in this 
 paper, during a short period when the editor was under the 
 necessity of entrusting to other hands the superintendence of 
 the press. 
 
 The Honourable the Governor- General and Council have 
 also commanded it to be made known that the permission 
 which they granted for publishing this paper was merely 
 confined to making it the channel for circulating the adver- 
 tisements of Government ; and that it is not by any means 
 to be considered as under their authority in any other respect 
 whatever. But at the same time they will hold the editor 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 65 
 
 accountable to them, and expect that he do not publish any- 
 thing that is improper. 
 
 It is not difficult to conceive the feelings with which 
 the editor went to press after receiving such a 
 polite reminder as this. He was to publish nothing 
 that was improper, and he had to remember how 
 opinions vary on the subject of propriety. Is it to be 
 wondered at that his journal was not a miracle of 
 editorial power, or that the original matter was 
 scrappy to the last degree ? 
 
 Some of the scraps are interesting in themselves ; 
 others are useful in showing how little the editor 
 under Government patronage could make of his sub- 
 ject. Speaking of public characters, the 6 Calcutta 
 Gazette,' &c, delivers itself on sundry occasions, and 
 in a jerky manner, of the following observations : — 
 
 Sept. 16, 1784. The Honourable the Governor- General 
 left Lucknow on the 28th ult. and was expected to be at 
 Benares on Friday last. 
 
 Sept. 23, 1784. We have the happiness to inform the 
 public that Mrs. Hastings had perfectly recovered her health 
 before her arrival at St. Helena. 
 
 Dec. 8, 1785. Mr. Hastings met with a most gracious 
 reception at Court, and has a strong party in his favour. He 
 dined with the Court of Directors, and received their public 
 thanks for his long and faithful services. 
 
 Dec. 15, 1785. Mr. Hastings is in high favour with the 
 King, the Board of Control, and the Court of Directors. 
 
 All these, and many more such, without comment. 
 
 p 
 
66 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Like some of our modern journals, the ' Calcutta 
 Gazette/ &c, occasionally killed some great public 
 character prematurely, or made some assertion wholly 
 unsupported by facts. But, unlike our papers of to- 
 day, it had no means of finding out the truth and 
 correcting these misstatements immediately. Thus, 
 on February 16, 1786, it tells the public that ' certain 
 accounts are received of the death of Tippoo,' and 
 proceeds with all appearance of veracity, and as much 
 detail as is compatible with the necessary brevity 
 of its editorials, to describe the manner of that 
 potentate's death. It is only on the 23rd of the 
 next month that a letter from Tellicherry enables the 
 editor to contradict himself, which he does as follows : 
 
 The report of the Nabob Tippoo Sultan's death was propa- 
 gated with so much confidence, and corroborated by such a 
 variety of connected circumstances at this place, that it gained 
 implicit belief; however, we are now fully convinced to the 
 contrary. And the conviction carries with it a severe stroke 
 on our commercial interest, as a variety of obstacles are 
 thrown in the way of staple commodities, of sandalwood, 
 pepper, and cardamoms, that amount almost to a prohibition. 
 
 Why the conviction of the editor that he had made a 
 mistake, or, indeed, whj the failure of Tippoo to die 
 when the editor killed him, should affect sandalwood, 
 pepper, and cardamoms in this disastrous way, we 
 are left to find out for ourselves, and at this distance 
 of time we despair of solving such an enigma. 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 67 
 
 As Mr. Seton-Karr observes in his preface, 'the 
 editor of the " Gazette " troubled himself little with 
 political speculations.' How could he do so with that 
 injunction about improper subjects still ringing in the 
 editorial ears ? He had to fill his columns with little 
 bits of local news,, extracts from English papers, 
 descriptions (generally translated from vernacular 
 writings) of the proceedings of the native courts, 
 and such poetry and feeble imitations of the papers 
 in the ' Spectator ' and ' Tatler * as obliging corre- 
 spondents could provide him with. Here is a speci- 
 men of Anglo-Indian poetry in 1784 :— 
 
 A letter from a lady in Calcutta to her friend in England. 
 
 Dear ,. down I'm set, 
 
 Here to discharge my scribbling debt. 
 How shall I paint the plagues I bore, 
 To reach this so much talked of shore ? 
 What hours of sickness, spleen and hip, 
 Pent in that odious thing, a ship ; 
 What rocks and storms to raise one's fear, 
 What broad discourse constrain'd to hear ; 
 With calms and swells so teased and tumbled, 
 With such strange folks together jumbled ! 
 Well, thank my stars ! those plagues are past, 
 A social air I breathe at last. 
 A little close I must confess 'tis, 
 Where Sol's broad beam a constant guest is. 
 And yet, dear girl, this place has charms, 
 Such as my sprightly bosom warms ! 
 ¥ 2 
 
68 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 No place, where at a bolder rate, 
 We females bear our sovereign state. 
 Beauty ne'er points its arms in vain ; 
 Each glance subdues some melting swain. 
 'Tis true the foe's not very stout, 
 Nor formed to hold a combat out ; 
 So flimsy this exhausted race is. 
 Thread-paper forms, and parchment faces. 
 But stay, let me reserve my rhyme, 
 To show you how I spend my time. 
 After a sultry restless night, 
 Tormented with the hum and bite 
 Of pois'nous insects out of number, 
 That here infest one's midnight slumber, 
 I rise fatigued, almost expended ; 
 Yet suddenly when breakfast's ended, 
 Away we hurry with our fops 
 To rummage o'er the Europe shops ; 
 And when of caps and gauze we hear, 
 Oh ! how we scramble for a share ! 
 Then, should some two with keen desire 
 The self-same lace or fringe admire, 
 What sharp contention, arch remarks, 
 Whilst trembling wait our anxious sparks ! 
 What smart rejoinders and replies, 
 Whilst lightnings flash from gentle eyes ! 
 Let prudes declaim on ease and grace — 
 This animates a charming face, 
 This sets the blood in circulation, 
 And gives the town some conversation. 
 At table, next, you'd see us seated, 
 In liberal style, with plenty treated. 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEAES AGO A RETROSPECT. 69 
 
 Near me a gentle swain, with leave, 
 To rank himself my humble slave. 
 Well here I know I'm at my task, 
 Ten thousand things I know you'd ask, 
 As ' What's his age, his size, his face ? ' 
 His mind and manners next you'd trace. 
 His purse, dear girl ; — the custom here 
 First points to that ; so, en premier, 
 A chief my Strephon was before, 
 At some strange place that ends with pore. 
 Where dextWously he swelled his store 
 Of lacks, and yet is adding more. 
 
 In this we find two allusions to the peculiarity of 
 the Anglo-Indian of 1784. He is described personally 
 as being of thread-paper form and parchment face ; 
 and his occupation is that of dexterously swelling his 
 store of lacks. 1 Principally employed in sedentary 
 work, and rarely taking any more violent exercise 
 than a ride in a palanquin, the Anglo-Indian of the 
 period could not be expected to be a very powerful 
 athlete, and when it is remembered that he spent 
 many of his nights in emptying punch-bowls or flasks 
 of Burgundy or Madeira, it is easy enough to ac- 
 count for his parchment face. In 1789 we hear of a 
 gentleman performing a feat of strength (?) which the 
 1 Calcutta Gazette ' looks upon as something marvel- 
 lous. This Hercules runs a mile, and the account of 
 
 1 A lack or lac is Rs. 100,000 or 10,000/. 
 
70 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 his exceptional performance winds up with the fol- 
 lowing remarks : — 
 
 Let it not, however, be hence inferred that the exertion was 
 small, and the victory therefore unimportant. Many attempts 
 have been made to do the same, and none succeeded ; and 
 Mr. E. had been told of these when he accepted the challenge, 
 but he confided in his own strength, resolved not to give out, 
 and to this resolution perhaps owed his success. 
 
 Thread-paper forms and parchment faces now-a- 
 days less frequently characterise the Anglo-Indian, 
 and there are hundreds of Englishmen in India, 
 racket-players and cricketers, who would think very 
 little of this feat of pedestrianism. Sometimes, 
 though not commonly, the 'Calcutta Gazette 5 came 
 out with some feeble specimen of witticism. 
 
 Under the head of ton mot there appears the 
 following repartee : — 
 
 A gentleman remarkable for his gallantry and the elegance 
 of his equipage drove up to a young lady a night or two ago 
 on the course, and after a little conversation, asked how she 
 liked his wife-trap ? l Very well, sir ; I think it a very 
 handsome carriage.' ' And pray, madam, how do you like 
 the bait within ? ' ' Pray, sir,' replied the lady, ' do you 
 speak in French or English ? ' 
 
 The gentleman remarkable for gallantry, if he 
 knew anything of French (which is problematical) 
 must have been a little taken aback by this reply. 
 At the same time, if his second question was a 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 71 
 
 specimen of the gallantry of the period in India, we 
 cannot but think that the Anglo-Indian was then 
 considerably behind his age in this respect. 
 
 Even in the scanty and Government-controlled 
 columns of this Indian journal we find abundant 
 proofs of the despotic character of the Government 
 of the day, and the small measure of freedom allowed 
 to rival traders and Europeans permitted to enter 
 the country. By Chap. 65, 21st George III., it was 
 provided that no British subject serving in India, or 
 licensed by the East India Company to proceed to 
 India, should reside elsewhere than in one of the 
 principal settlements, or within ten miles thereof 
 without a special license ; and in 1788 we find the 
 Government directing that no European is to proceed 
 from the Company's provinces beyond Buxar without 
 the Governor-General's pass. In 1784 an embargo 
 was laid upon the exportation of grain. And other 
 similar examples are to be found scattered among 
 these selections. The East India Company yet 
 clung to their commercial monopoly. Their servants 
 were still senior merchants, junior merchants, and 
 factors, even when they had commenced their duties 
 as administrators. We find the Government adver- 
 tising the sale of its Madeira just as any other wine- 
 merchants would, and conducting its mercantile 
 affairs with as much gravity as though trading were 
 the necessary consequence of holding the govern- 
 
72 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 ment of a country. Warren Hastings saw the evil 
 of this, and in his memoir spoke thus : — 
 
 Although we have so long been in possession of the sove- 
 reignty of Bengal, and have provided our investments, not as 
 the returns of commerce, but as the means of remitting the 
 surplus of the revenues of the country, yet we have not yet 
 been able so far to change our ideas with our situation as to 
 quit the contracted views of monopolists, for objects tending 
 to promote the prosperity of those territories from which we 
 derive so valuable a tribute. Hence it is, that in all corre- 
 spondence with the Board of Trade, we find constant com- 
 plaints of private merchants making advances to the Company's 
 weavers ; of their giving greater prices than have hitherto 
 been given by the Company; of their debasing the quality of 
 the manufacture, by taking off goods which the Company 
 refuses; and, in short, of their injuring the Company's invest- 
 ment by their competition and interference. Let that be. 
 
 He goes on at some length to advocate the 
 abandonment of State monopolies, and to point out 
 the advantages to be derived by the country from 
 free trade. But the abandonment of the system of 
 monopolies was a gradual process. It is only a few 
 years since the Indian Government relinquished its 
 salt manufacture, and there yet remains that opium 
 monopoly which has in Exeter Hall speakers such 
 violent opponents. 
 
 In the ( Calcutta Gazette ' we see proofs that other 
 civilians besides Clive, and at a later date than 
 Clive, cast aside the pen to assume the sword. In 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 73 
 
 1784 the Bombay Government writes to the Governor- 
 General and Council thus : — 
 
 Messrs. Frederick Davy and George Dide, writers on this 
 establishment, being, as we are informed, in the military 
 service in your presidency, we request you will have it 
 signified to them that in case they do not repair to their 
 station, we shall consider them as no longer belonging to this 
 establishment, and strike them off the list of Company's 
 servants belonging thereto. 
 
 Whether these civil malingerers returned to their 
 peaceful occupation at the desk does not transpire. 
 History knows not these embryo Olives, upon whose 
 early military career the Bombay establishment thus 
 rudely descended. 
 
 Of the social life of India we obtain many examples 
 in the two volumes before us, and we will proceed 
 to look at these. First, we find, dated 21st 
 October, 1784, a letter from A. B. to the editor, 
 recommending the establishment of a Ranelagh, or 
 Vauxhall, and a coffee-house modelled after the 
 manner of the Chapter Coffee-house in London. 
 A. B. has a more than sufficiently appreciative idea 
 of the social state of Calcutta, quoad amusements, 
 as it is, but thinks a coffee-house and Eanelagh 
 would improve it. He has, or he says he has, 
 observed with infinite delight the rapid progress 
 made in all polite and refined entertainments ; and 
 boldly declares that ' Calcutta, in the elegance of its 
 
74 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 amusements, and the fashionable style in which they 
 are carried on, will shortly vie with most of the 
 cities even in Europe.' The italics are A. B.'s, and 
 we may concede at least so much of his prognosti- 
 cation as points to Calcutta shortly rivalling most of 
 the cities in any other quarter of the globe than 
 Europe. A. B., who may not have been wholly dis- 
 interested about the Vauxhall project, further says, 
 that if European cities boast of their plays, mas- 
 querades, assemblies, and concerts, Calcutta can 
 pride itself on the same with equal propriety and 
 justice. This is a bold assertion, which will not be 
 confirmed by our remarks upon masquerades and so 
 forth, to be made hereafter. In spite of A. B.'s 
 advocacy, the Vauxhall and coffee-house projects do 
 not appear to have been eminently successful. The 
 out-door Vauxhall commenced as a signal failure. 
 In 1735 the proprietors of the London Tavern tried 
 an in-door Vauxhall, and laid out their c large and 
 extensive rooms ' in a rural style, with ' several rural 
 walks diversified, they trust, with taste and fancy,' 
 and ' several alcoves conveniently interspersed in 
 them, where there will always be ready prepared the 
 best cold collation.' A band of music, as good as 
 could be provided, was to attend for the entertain- 
 ment of the company. And ' the accommodations 
 will be so arranged that a variety of parties may 
 enjoy themselves without mixing with others, or 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT, (b 
 
 » 
 being subject to the intrusion usual at public places 
 
 of amusement.' Even this attractive entertainment 
 did not prosper. Perhaps people got tired of the 
 rural walks and alcoves. Possibly the band was not 
 as good as could be desired, although as good as 
 could be provided. Or, even in the small society of 
 Calcutta in 1 785, some senior factor's wife may have 
 condemned the place because some creature not of 
 the bon ton had intruded upon her in her particular 
 rural walk or alcove. But nil desperandum was the 
 cry of the Yauxhall partisans, for we find Mr. Gairard 
 advertising for December 8, 1786, another out-door 
 Vauxhall, with ' a grand representation of the meta- 
 morphosis of Jupiter into a shower of gold ; musick 
 champetre playing in different parts of the gardens, 
 garden walks illuminated at nine ; and a convenient 
 place appropriated for the carriages and palankeens 
 in the gardens.' Ladies and gentlemen were further 
 tempted to come by the announcement that they 
 might ' amuse themselves at the agreeable exercise 
 of throwing out small rockets, &c, to win prizes.' 
 We may assume that Mr. Gairard met with some 
 promise of success in this great venture, for we find 
 him on December 4, 1788, again before the public as 
 a promoter of this style of entertainment. But he 
 is warned by a correspondent in the ' Calcutta 
 Gazette' of December 7, that he had better fulfil his 
 engagements this time, as the public will not be as 
 
76 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 passive as they were on the last occasion. However 
 Mr. Gairard may have carried out his engagements 
 in this instance, Vauxhall did not flourish either 
 indoors or out of doors, and more recent attempts at 
 imitating Cremorne in India have been equally un- 
 successful. 
 
 Neither does A. B.'s project of a coffee-house 
 appear to have resulted immediately in anything 
 substantial. In spite of this prophet's exalted idea 
 of the civilised state of Calcutta, it was not till some 
 years after his letter appeared that a coffee-house 
 and many other useful institutions were established. 
 When he wrote about Ranelagh and the Chapter 
 Coffee-house, there was in Calcutta no building for 
 public meetings. A public exchange and coffee-room 
 was only seriously proposed in 1788. The establish- 
 ment of a hospital for natives requiring the assistance 
 of a surgeon was only contemplated in 1792. And 
 whether as to churches, museums, libraries, or what 
 not, Calcutta was either not adequately supplied or 
 not supplied at all. 
 
 But Calcutta had a theatre, and one shudders to 
 think of the agonies our Anglo-Indian ancestors 
 must have gone through in the audience quarter of 
 this home of the drama. The players were almost 
 unexceptionally amateurs and of the male sex. Only 
 here and there do we find that some tenth-rate pro- 
 fessional actress assisted. And yet the pieces or- 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 77 
 
 dinarily played were Shakespeare's tragedies, or 
 something equally involving the necessity of great 
 dramatic talent and a strong cast. The editor of 
 the ' Calcutta Gazette ' is, more suo, very brief in his 
 notices of these theatrical displays, and herein we 
 cannot but commend him. We find such theatrical 
 critiques as the following interspersed throughout 
 the selections : — ' On Monday evening, Aug. 23, 
 1864, the comedy of the "Clandestine Marriage" 
 was performed at our theatre, to a very full audience, 
 and received with great applause.' Very much the 
 same is said for the c Merchant of Venice,' performed 
 on October 18, 1784, with the addition that c Shylock 
 never appeared to greater advantage, and the other 
 characters were, in general, well supported.' In the 
 performance of the 'Fair Penitent,' February 13, 1786, 
 ' the characters were judiciously cast, and in general 
 well supported.' The proclivities of the editor, if not 
 of the public, evidently inclined towards tragedies or 
 dramas of the heavy school ; for when the amateurs 
 had performed the i Critic,' the editor ' cannot avoid 
 suggesting, though with infinite deference to the 
 director of the theatre, who is indefatigable in the 
 department which he so ably fills, that the tragedies of 
 " Hamlet," " Zara," " Venice Preserved," and " Mac- 
 beth " stand very high in the public estimation, and 
 that they anxiously hope to see him fill some of the 
 principal characters in these tragedies during the 
 
(0 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 continuance of the cold season.' But we find the 
 current of the drama gradually trending away from 
 the region of the tragic muse — we see notices 
 of ' Eichard III./ the ' Revenge,' the ' Grecian 
 Daughter,' and such heavy pieces being put on 
 the stage, and then we find these superseded by the 
 'Life and Death of Tom Thumb.' Musical pieces 
 were frequently attempted, and the Calcutta public 
 in the latter part of the eighteenth century enjoyed (?) 
 amateur performances of the ' Waterman,' the 
 < Padlock,' and the < Poor Soldier.' 
 
 They were ambitious as to musical entertainments 
 generally, for we find them attempting instrumental 
 and vocal concerts, and even oratorios. The i Messiah ' 
 is advertised in 1785 and 1786, though very little is 
 said on the subject beyond the announcement that 
 the charge for box tickets is 1 gold mohur (32s. to 
 40s.), and that for pit tickets 8 sicca rupees. But 
 on March 9, 1797, there is given a glowing descrip- 
 tion of a performance of 6 a selection of music from 
 the works of Handel in the new church.' The per- 
 formers on this occasion are thus classified : 
 
 The instrumental parts — 15 violins, 6 tenors, 6 violoncellos, 
 2 double basses, 4 flutes, 6 clarinets, and occasionally 2 haut- 
 boys, 4 horns, 6 bassoons, 1 serpent, 2 trumpets, kettle-drums, 
 bass drums, and the organ for the thorough bass. The vocal 
 performers — altos, cantos, and trebles, counter-tenors, tenors 
 and basses to the number of twenty-six or twenty-eight. 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO A RETROSPECT. 79 
 
 And the performance is described as unexception- 
 able. Unfortunately at the time of this great musical 
 display several ships had just arrived from England, 
 and many who would have constituted a portion of 
 the auditory were engaged in receiving the friends, 
 or letters, or goods, brought by them. This was a 
 peculiarity of the time. The arrival of every ship 
 from Europe was always the cause of much excite- 
 ment, even, as Mr. Seton-Karr points out in a foot- 
 note, to the extent of half emptying large dinner 
 tables of the guests seated at them. 
 
 There was a feeble show of imitating the mas- 
 querades then popular in England. Describing one 
 given on March 21, 1785, the ' Gazette' gives the 
 following as the most remarkable characters : — 
 
 Hunca-munca, an admirable mask, and astonishingly well 
 supported the whole night. Two gipsies, very smart and 
 witty in their questions and replies. An Oxonian, by a lady 
 who supported the character with great spirit. Two boarding- 
 school misses and their governess, excellent. A French beau 
 and belle, very entertaining. Three admirable sailors, who 
 sung a glee. An Armenian gentleman and lady, much in 
 character. A very good milkmaid. A naggah, very capital. 
 A smart ballad singer, but was so modest she could not 
 venture to sing. An excellent Jew. A fortune-telling 
 gipsy, very good. A watchman. An harlequin and clown, 
 very lively and active. A Joghee, well performed. A 
 soldier, a good mask. An inimitable housemaid. A Met- 
 rany, capital. A French pastrycook. A French pedlar. A 
 Subadhar. A Turk. A Moonshee. Several Moghuls, 
 
80 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Persians, and Moormen. The dominoes in general well 
 fancied, but as usual were too numerous. 
 
 This description was possibly highly coloured, but', 
 then, indiscriminate eulogy involved nothing that 
 could be denounced as ' improper,' and was not 
 likely to injure the circulation of the paper. We 
 find other remarks upon masquerades, and they are 
 always of a very eulogistic character. Announcements 
 of dances or assemblies to come, or descriptions of 
 those that have recently occurred, are found in some 
 considerable number. The arrangements of those 
 entertainments appear to have been very much the 
 same for all occasions. Minuets were walked in the 
 early part of the evening — supper was served at 
 from half-past ten to twelve, and dancing, in the 
 form of country dances and cotillons, wound up the 
 evening. In most of the announcements of these 
 assemblies it is advertised that hookahs will not be 
 admitted into the ball-room. In some instances 
 there was a vast amount of formality, and much 
 diplomatic settlement of precedence. Among the 
 ' regulations ' for one series of subscriptions we find 
 the following : — 
 
 III. That ladies be taken out to dance minuets according 
 to the rank their husbands hold in the King's or Honourable 
 Company's service. 
 
 IV. That ladies whose husbands are not in the King's or 
 Honourable Company's service be taken out to dance minuets 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO A RETROSPECT. 81 
 
 in the order they came into the room, and that this regulation 
 hold good with regard to unmarried ladies. 
 
 V. That all ladies draw lots for places in country dances. 
 
 VI. That any lady allowing the first couple to pass the 
 place corresponding with the number of her ticket shall stand 
 the last couple for that dance. 
 
 VII. That ladies having gone down a country dance shall 
 stand up for all the couples who are to follow, or not dance 
 any more during that night. 
 
 XVI. That hookahs be not admitted to the ball-room 
 during any part of the night. (Note. — Hookahs will be 
 admitted to the supper-room, to the card-rooms, to the boxes 
 in the theatre, and to each side of the assembly-room, between 
 the large pillars and the walls.) 
 
 A pleasant time the master of the ceremonies must 
 have had of it on these occasions, and very pretty 
 squabbles may be supposed to have arisen among the 
 ladies for place and precedence. We can sympathise 
 with the wife of the interloper who, taking rank 
 according to the hour of her arrival on the scene, 
 was doomed to be led out last in the minuet. But 
 even keener is oar sympathy with the male Anglo- 
 Indian of the period who might not take his hookah 
 into the ball-room. What was it to him that he 
 might take it everywhere else ; that he might smoke 
 it while he played his game of cards or eat his supper, 
 if he could not have it nigh at hand when he danced ? 
 He was in the habit of having it at his elbow at all 
 times and seasons : it followed him to his office in 
 
 G 
 
82 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the day; it was brought in with the sweets at 
 dinner ; it soothed him to sleep in his bed at night, 
 and now he found this sharer of his joys and anodyne 
 for his troubles denied to him — snatched from his 
 grasp by Eegulation xvi. of a Ball committee. 
 
 Dancing by night does not appear to have satisfied 
 the Terpsichorean requirements of the age, for in 
 January 1794 we find a company of two hundred and 
 fifty indulging in this amusement in the morning- 
 after the races. The races came off first, and could 
 not have occupied any great length of time ; for one 
 race — the ' Hunters' plate ' or c Ladies' plate,' or 
 6 The Plate,' — a day, with perhaps a match thrown 
 in, was all that the Anglo-Indian turfites of 1794 
 appear to have been equal to. After the races, or 
 more correctly speaking race, ' the company adjoined 
 to an adjoining tent of very capacious dimensions, 
 handsomely fitted up, and boarded for the purpose of 
 dancing ; country dances commenced in two sets, and 
 were kept up with the utmost gaiety till two in the 
 afternoon.' 
 
 The association of oyster suppers with theatres, 
 balls and masquerades is natural enough. At the 
 present time oysters are only presented to the Anglo- 
 Indian of Calcutta and the North in the form of 
 hermetically-sealed nastiness which tastes of chalk 
 and sea-weed, and is as tough as cow-hide. In 1 784 
 the public of Calcutta was supplied with oysters 
 
IXDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 83 
 
 brought up from the Bay of Bengal, and the demand 
 for these, indifferent though they were, were such as 
 induced Mr. Creighton, of the Harmonic House, to 
 enlarge his oyster house, and fit up two places for 
 the accommodation of gentlemen and an additional 
 well for the oysters. The business of the Harmonic 
 House does not appear to have enjoyed perfect im- 
 munity from the evils of native corruption, for in 
 1785 Mr. Creighton comes before the world with the 
 following doleful and foggily worded address : — 
 
 As Mr. Creighton has advanced considerable sums of money 
 to people concerned in the oyster business, for the sole purpose 
 of procuring him oysters, he is sorry to inform them that he 
 is obliged to advance the price from this date for those 
 oysters which are sent out of the Harmonic, owing to his 
 people disposing of them to such persons as wait on the 
 river, and deprive him of what in reality is his property ; as 
 he is reduced from the above motives to the necessity of re- 
 purchase, he hopes it will be a sufficient apology to the 
 public. 
 
 Duels are reported in the ' Calcutta Gazette ' with 
 very matter-of-fact equanimity and the usual brevity. 
 On May 31, 1787, we are told that — 
 
 Yesterday morning a duel was fought between Mr. G , 
 
 an attorney-at-law, and Mr. A , one of the proprietors of 
 
 the library, in which the former was killed on the spot. We 
 understand the quarrel originated about a gambling debt. 
 
 On July 5th of the same year this trifling social 
 difficulty is disposed of in the following words : — 
 
 o 2 
 
84 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 On Monday last came on the trial of Mr. A for killing 
 
 Mr. G in a duel. The trial lasted till near five o'clock 
 
 in the afternoon, when the jury retired for a short time, and 
 
 brought in their verdict not guilty. Mr. G was a very 
 
 respectable man, very able in his profession, and is much 
 regretted by all who had the pleasure of his acquaint- 
 
 Peace to the manes of Mr. G ! Probably in less 
 
 than nine days the untimely end of this respectable 
 ornament of the legal profession was obliterated 
 from the minds of those who had lost the pleasure of 
 his acquaintance ; and possibly in an equally short 
 
 time Mr. A was ready to relieve the tedium of 
 
 life in a library by another attempt to thin the legal 
 
 ranks. Had Mr. A lived sixty or eighty years 
 
 later, the consequence of his affair with Mr. G 
 
 might have been very different : in all likelihood the 
 library would have seen him no more among the 
 familiar book-shelves, and a sorrowing circle of 
 friends would have missed the pleasure of his ac- 
 quaintance also. But in 1787, and for many years 
 after, a duel was an act of the ordinary drama of life, 
 and the subsequent trial was the farce with which 
 the performance concluded. 
 
 Advertisements of absconded slaves are frequently 
 met with in the ' Gazette.' Happy bondsmen, revel- 
 ling in such names as Jupiter, Christmas, Wilks, 
 Antony, or, nerhans only dubbed simple Imam Buxs, 
 
IXDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 85 
 
 have eloped from all the comforts of a home ; and 
 their owners announce that they will be glad to have 
 these human articles of property returned to them. 
 Sometimes the slave in the hurry of his departure 
 has forgotten to leave his master's purse, or sundry 
 articles of the family plate chest ; but his owner is 
 forgiving and none the less anxious, for this reason, 
 to take the stray lamb back to his bosom and rattan. 
 But, it must be remembered, slavery was yet recog- 
 nised by England as a necessary institution, and 
 not peculiar to the British possessions in India. 
 
 We find many other advertisements indicative of 
 the social condition, tastes, and requirements of the 
 time. Malver, a hairdresser from Europe, c proposes 
 himself to the ladies of the settlement to dress hair 
 daily, at two gold mohurs per month, with gauze, 
 flowers, &c.' And ' he will also instruct the slaves at 
 a moderate price.' Other Europeans offer to build up 
 the lofty structures which were worn on the heads of 
 the ladies of the period, and some ask to be allowed 
 to do the washing of the public. ' Two elegant 
 young royal tigers, male and female,' are to be sold 
 for the moderate consideration of 800 sicca rupees, or 
 between 80/. and 90Z. It is said of them that ' they 
 are very tame and playful, and would answer the 
 purpose of sending to Europe,' and that ' their ex- 
 penses in victualling are very trifling ; they now cost 
 two annas (3d.) per day, and they are very fat and in 
 
86 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 good order.' And a pair of English dray-horses are 
 to be sold for 600?. Among fresh Europe goods there 
 are advertised pianofortes with organs underneath and 
 flute stops, E. 0. tables, old red port, pickled tongues, 
 pistols, and hangers, doe breeches, and gloves, books, 
 debates in the House of Lords and Commons, cocked 
 hats, embroidered waistcoats, beef and pork, harp- 
 sichords, seolian harps, and hautboys. Two postilions 
 of light weight are wanted at Massey's livery stables. 
 ' Elegant chair palanquins with glasses, Venetians all 
 compleat, and fly palanquins with chintz bedding, 
 &c.,' occur in the lists of furniture for sale ; and 
 lotteries, with long lists of the prizes to be given, 
 frequently appear. Things have changed considerably 
 since the time when these advertisements were pub- 
 lished. The washing of the Anglo-Indian is now 
 done by his own native servant (Dhobee). Elegant 
 young royal tigers are not in such demand in Europe 
 as to justify the purchase of them in India at such a 
 cost as 800 sicca rupees a pair ; and the cost of feed- 
 ing an interesting couple of such tame and playful 
 pets would be many times greater than it was repre- 
 sented to be in 1785. Many of the European articles 
 then required are now unknown; light postilions are 
 creatures as extinct as the dodo. And wheeled con- 
 veyances, the rail, and the steamer have nearly driven 
 the palanquin out of the category of Anglo-Indian 
 necessaries. 
 
IXDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 87 
 
 In the good old days of 1785 the aspirations of the 
 Englishman on the subject of quick travelling were 
 nowhere very ambitious. In England he was con- 
 tented to be dragged along in a heavy coach at the 
 rate of five miles an hour ; and it was nothing to him 
 that, at the best, a journey of two hundred miles was 
 extended over a couple of days. In India he was 
 satisfied to be carried from place to place in his 
 palanquin at a rate not exceeding three miles an 
 hour ; or, if he travelled by water, he made out his 
 journey (somewhat faster if he went down stream, 
 and slower if he went against the current) in a 
 budgerow, which was an abbreviated edition of 
 Noah's ark. In 1787 the ' Gazette ' speaks of the 
 Governor-General's favourable passage from Calcutta 
 to Benares, and is in raptures because his excellency 
 has accomplished this distance (' including several 
 days he had stopt at different settlements') in a 
 month. In 1871 his excellency may go from Calcutta 
 to Benares, if he travel by rail, in twenty-four hours. 
 But the notions entertained by the Anglo-Indian of 
 the earlier period on the subjects of locomotion and 
 communication were generally vague, for looking 
 back to 1784, we find the 'Gazette' quite ecstatic 
 because letters from England had been received, via 
 Busra and Benares, in the unparalleledly short period 
 of four months and seventeen days. 
 
 Occasionally the ' Gazette's ' advertisements are 
 
88 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 characterised by some degree of humour. One tells 
 us of the sale of Mrs. Maria de- Misquitta's house, 
 and recommends it as 'very convenient for a mo- 
 derate and devout family, its being so near the church, 
 which will be exposed to sale precisely at eleven 
 o'clock.' Richard Harvey qualifies his promise to 
 teach geometry, trigonometry, navigation, motion of 
 projectiles, geography, astronomy, algebra, and the 
 doctrine of fluxions, by the doubtful statement that 
 his lessons will be given ( if no unforeseen accident 
 occurs to prevent it.' Whether the unforeseen acci- 
 dent dimly suggested was his inability to master 
 these subjects himself he does not say. A house 
 agent, anticipating George Robins, gives it as an 
 advantage to a house that it commands a very ex- 
 tensive prospect of the padd}- fields. He might just 
 as well have recommended it on the ground that it 
 commanded an extensive prospect of brick-fields; 
 and we are reminded by this advertisement of that 
 more modern one in which the only drawbacks to a 
 terrestrial paradise were said to be the litter of the 
 rose leaves and the noise of the nightingales. Finally, 
 we extract from the advertisement columns the fol- 
 lowing specimen of the polite correspondence of 
 1789:— 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO— A RETROSPECT. 89 
 
 Sir, — Pray send me a bottle of the ale I purchased to-day 
 to taste. You may send two. Your obedient servant, 
 To Mr. Burrell. J. Bourdieu. 
 
 Answer. 
 Sir, — Pray send for the whole ; we do not send it out in 
 bottles. Your obedient servants, 
 
 B. E. & Dring. 
 
 Reply. 
 I merely want to taste it ; you surely may venture to send 
 a bottle. J. B. 
 
 Answer. 
 We really cannot comply with such troublesome cus- 
 tomers. (No signature.) 
 
 The Anglo-Indian of eighty years ago did not live 
 in the atmosphere of comparative safety that now 
 surrounds him. Besides indulging in habits of life 
 which exaggerated the effects of the climate upon 
 him, he was exposed to dangers which no longer 
 exist. Indolence and hard living, now unknown, 
 ruined his constitution. Insufficient exercise, com- 
 bined with late hours, heavy drinking bouts, and 
 constant indulgence in the hookah, gave to his liver 
 the honey-combed character of a sponge, and to his 
 face the rich complexion of a guinea. But there 
 were evils of a more immediately disastrous character 
 which were beyond his control, or with which he had 
 not yet learnt to cope. If he remained in a settle- 
 ment, small-pox or some other epidemic might seize 
 
90 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 him; if lie went beyond it, a tiger or a gang of 
 robbers might perform the same office for him. 
 Inoculation was introduced into India in 1786 to do 
 what it could for the alleviation of that scourge 
 small-pox, but there was no immediate alleviation for 
 the pests tigers and robbers. Even in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of Calcutta, and where now one would 
 as much expect to meet the sea-serpent as a tiger, 
 Europeans occasionally, and natives frequently, were 
 carried off by the striped monarch of the Indian 
 jungle. The c Gazette ' gives instances of these sad 
 occurrences, and on more than one occasion describes 
 the attack upon the houses of Europeans made by 
 gangs of robbers (Dacoits). The house of a Mr. 
 Turner in Allipore (now a suburb of Calcutta) was 
 sacked in 1790 by a gang of thirty or forty Dacoits 
 armed with tulwars (swords) and spears ; and we 
 further read that, in March 1796, Mr. Glegg, an in- 
 digo planter in the Benares province, was visited by 
 the gang of a notorious ruffian named Sultanut Sing. 
 Mr. Glegg fared but poorly in the hands of this 
 Asiatic Jack Sheppard. His house was plundered, 
 and he was carried off a prisoner to be, some days 
 after, released on ransom. In starting from his house 
 he was allowed the luxury of being carried in a litter, 
 but Sultanut Sing soon appropriated this to his own 
 purposes, and Mr. Glegg, bare-footed, had to walk 
 over the thorns and sharp stones as he best could. 
 
IXDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO A RETROSPECT. 91 
 
 The band of Sultanut Sing numbered 500, and at 
 his head-quarters he was joined by another amiable 
 bandit with a limited party of 200 followers. 
 
 While the relations of France towards England in 
 Europe were not of a peaceful character, the French 
 settlements in India were a fruitful source of annoy- 
 ance, if not of danger, to the Anglo-Indian. Within 
 a few miles of Calcutta was the French possession 
 Chandernagore, and in the Madras presidency our 
 Gallic rivals held Pondicherry. Early in 1788, when 
 rumours of war in Europe had reached the shores of 
 India, the French could hardly make up their minds 
 whether they would abandon or defend their Indian 
 territory. We read in the ' Gazette ' of March 20 
 that — 
 
 The French at Chandernagore, with extreme caution rather 
 than prudence, have stopped any further advances for their 
 investment, and some of the wealthy inhabitants have begun 
 moving their most valuable effects to Serampore (a Dutch 
 settlement). 
 
 On March 27 there appeared in the poet's corner 
 of the same journal the following ' Imprompter ' (sic) 
 on the late intelligence from Pondicherry and 
 Chandernagore : — 
 
 How wanton is fate ! how it sporteth with nations ! 
 Behold a strong fortress besieged and won 
 At once, both for flight and for flight preparations, 
 Yet no one hath knowledge that war is begun. 
 
92 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 The consideration with which the English treated 
 their French neighbours in India was not always 
 sufficiently appreciated. In 1795 a daring act of 
 piracy was committed by a party of Frenchmen who, 
 by the lenity of Government, had been permitted to 
 be at liberty on their parole. These irrepressible 
 Gauls, nine in number, went down the Hooghly in a 
 budgerow and seized the 'Gillet,' a British pilot 
 schooner, at her anchorage in the Kedgeree Eoads ; 
 they did not unnecessarily maltreat the English crew, 
 but sent all of them, except one who was detained 
 as a pilot, back to Calcutta in the budgerow, and, 
 without charts and quadrants, went off to sea with 
 their prize. 
 
 Commercially considered, India had much to learn 
 at this period. The Anglo-Indian who wished to 
 remit money to Europe had either to obtain bills 
 with a collateral security in diamonds or other pre- 
 cious stones, or to send the stones as his remittance. 
 In 1785 Mr. Barnet, of Benares, tells us that e he 
 continues to grant bills on London with a collateral 
 security in rough diamonds at 2s. 3d, the current 
 rupee.' Further, Mr. Barnet remarks that — 
 
 Having experienced great inconveniences from receiving 
 commissions when the English ships are on the point of 
 sailing, he entreats the favour of three months' previous 
 notice given him, to enable him to prepare the diamonds 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO; — A RETROSPECT. 93 
 
 properly, though payment is not required till the diamonds 
 are ready to be delivered to the remitter. 
 
 And he concludes by saying that, ' having relinquished 
 every other pursuit, he means to devote his time and 
 attention to the purchase of diamonds only.' Un- 
 happily for Mr. Barnet's sole pursuit, the time he 
 lived in was one in which the East India Company, 
 exercised a trade monopoly, and in little more than a 
 year a blow was struck at his remitting and diamond 
 preparing business by the following edict : — 
 
 The Honourable the Court of Directors having permitted 
 Mr. Lyon Prager to proceed to Benares, and reside there for 
 the purpose of trading in pearls, diamonds, diamond boart, 
 and other precious stones, in order to afford to individuals 
 means of remitting their property to Europe, and to secure to 
 the Company their accustomed duties ; and having forbid any 
 European Company's servant or other from dealing in those 
 articles for the European market, unless they enter into 
 covenants similar to those which Mr. Prager has subscribed 
 to, notice is hereby given, that permission will not be granted 
 to any person in future to carry on the above trade, unless 
 they conform to the Court of Directors' orders by entering 
 into the prescribed engagements. 
 
 In 1785 the Anglo-Indian who wished to remit 
 money home to meet some urgent demand was not 
 in a very enviable position. A poor relative may 
 have written to him from London on January 1, 
 asking for 501. to save the writer from a debtor's 
 
94 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 prison. This letter reached India, say, some time in 
 June. The addressee then had to give three months' 
 notice to Mr. Barnet. In September he got his bill 
 with the collateral security in diamonds ; in October, 
 perhaps, he found a vessel sailing, and about April, 
 or when his poor relative had enjoyed the pleasures of 
 the Fleet for a year or so, the remittance reached 
 England. Possibly after all, Mr. Barnet's bill was 
 not honoured by the house upon which it was drawn ; 
 the impecuniosity of the poor relative was unrelieved, 
 and the remitter had to fall back upon his collateral 
 security — the diamonds — which may have been worth 
 half what he had paid for them. As to the indigo 
 trade, the governing monopolist and the public were 
 also singularly in the dark. In 1787 it was believed 
 that, notwithstanding the great encouragement given 
 by Government to the manufacturers of indigo, that 
 article would be driven out of the market by the 
 indigo grown in the Brazils by the Portuguese. A 
 year later, and a more hopeful view of the subject 
 was entertained. The Government in 1788 thought 
 it possible that indigo, if the manufacture was con- 
 ducted properly, might continue to rank as one of 
 India's products. In a long extract from a letter 
 addressed to the Governor-General in Council, the 
 Secretary to the Government made public the correct 
 system of manufacture, and exposed the errors that 
 then existed in this direction. The manufacturers 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 95 
 
 were informed, that ' Indigo, which is now made in 
 the rainy season, shonld be made in dry weather, the 
 vegetation in the rainy season being too rapid, and 
 forces the plant to apparent maturity before the dye 
 is formed,' and much more to the same effect. But 
 unfortunately for the effect of this advice, the Govern- 
 ment that could coerce the manufacturers, could not 
 control the forces of nature. It was sound advice, 
 no doubt, that recommended the manufacture of indigo 
 in the dry weather, but then, unhappily, indigo will 
 not come to even ' apparent maturity ' in that season ; 
 and those who attempted to make the dye as recom- 
 mended by Government would have found themselves 
 in a worse predicament than that of the Israelites 
 when that suffering people were requested to make 
 bricks without straw. In spite of governmental 
 advice the manufacture of indigo did progress by 
 slow degrees, and in 1793 we find 400 maunds (or 
 fifteen tons) of this article delivered to the company 
 by Mr. Cullen, of Benares. At the present time 400 
 maunds represent a very insignificant portion of the 
 annual manufacture. 
 
 Of the life of those Anglo-Indians who, eighty or a 
 hundred years ago, lived at a distance from the presi- 
 dency town, Dr. Hunter has given us a very graphic 
 and interesting description in his ' Annals of Eural 
 Bengal.' Of the Company's servants the commercial 
 resident was the virtual head of the district, while 
 
96 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 the nominal head — the collector — by whom justice 
 was administered, was but a very secondary person- 
 age. Of these two Dr. Hunter observes as follows : 
 
 Of longer standing in the service than the collector, and 
 less liable to be transferred, the commercial resident formed 
 the real head of the district. His gains were unlimited ; for, 
 besides his official pay, he carried on an enormous business 
 on his own account. We find Mr. Keating (the collector) 
 complaining that he can barely subsist on his salary ; that the 
 mud tenement in which he lives is letting in water, and 
 tumbling down upon his head ; and petitioning in vain for a 
 single rood of land on which to build a house. The com- 
 mercial resident, rather than the collector, wielded the power 
 of the public purse. Mr. Keating possessed patronage only to 
 the amount of 3,000/. per annum, and all valuable appoint- 
 ments in his gift required the confirmation of the Calcutta 
 authorities. But the commercial resident had from 45,000/. 
 to 65,000/. to spend each year on behalf of the Company. 
 The whole industrial classes were in his pay, and in his 
 person Government appeared in its most benign aspect. On 
 the collector devolved the harsh task of levying the taxes ; 
 the commercial resident had the pleasant duty of redistributing 
 them. To the then superstitious Hindoo Mr. Keating was 
 the Company in the form of Siva, a divinity powerful for 
 evil, and to be propitiated accordingly ; while the commercial 
 resident was the Company in the form of Vishnu, powerful 
 for good, less venerated because les3 feared, but adored, 
 beloved, wheedled, and cheated on every hand. A long 
 unpaid retinue followed him from one factory to another, 
 and as the procession defiled through the hamlets mothers 
 held aloft their children to catch a sight of his palanquin, 
 while the elders bowed low before the Providence from whom 
 they derived their daily bread. 
 
IKDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 97 
 
 While the collector petitioned in vain for a patch 
 of land on which to erect a water-tight house of a 
 modest description, the commercial resident, the 
 representative of the Company in its commercial 
 aspect, 'lived sumptuously in a pile of buildings 
 surrounded by artificial lakes and spacious gardens, 
 and defended by a strong wall which gave the com- 
 mercial residency a look less of a private dwelling 
 than of a fortified city.' The commercial fortress 
 was occasionally the scene of a liberal hospitality, 
 and we read how for forty days together open house 
 was there kept. No Lenten time were those forty 
 days. 
 
 But the Company employed other agents for the 
 management of its investments besides its salaried 
 commercial residents. Independent merchants or 
 adventurers were sometimes made use of for this 
 purpose. Not always did the lines of the adventurer 
 of that period fall in pleasant places. We have 
 already shown how he was liable to the unpleasant- 
 ness of being plundered or carried off by robbers, and 
 Mr. Hunter also depicts some of the trials that 
 beset the adventurous European who had (in the 
 cant phrase that still exists) gone to India c to de- 
 velop the resources of the country.' < From the day 
 that the non-official merchant set foot in a district 
 the local authorities were arrayed against him. The 
 
98 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 natives charged him the highest prices for everything 
 and the Company allowed him the smallest.' He 
 paid more than the value of the land he purchased ; 
 fell into arrears of rent ; and was obliged to fly from 
 place to place to avoid arrest. Perhaps after spend- 
 ing ten or twenty years of his life in the struggle for 
 wealth, he found himself, after all, with barely a roof 
 to cover his head. But it was also possible that he 
 should rise superior to the troubles that surrounded 
 him and amass a fortune, with which, in the charac- 
 ter of an Indian nabob, he returned to his native 
 land. Where he had sufficient energy and tact he 
 conquered the difficulties caused by official discou- 
 ragement, and assumed much of the authority of those 
 of the Company's servants who had exercised a jack- 
 in-office tyranny over him. He became the magistrate, 
 judge, adviser, and physician of the natives living in 
 his neighbourhood ; he administered justice, counsel, 
 and medicine to the hundreds with whom, directly or 
 indirectly, he had dealings ; and the authority thus 
 gained satisfactorily influenced his commercial opera- 
 tions. But, socially considered, he was, however 
 successful in commerce, an object for commiseration. 
 He was almost entirely cut off from intercourse with 
 his own countrymen ; he was an exile from the 
 world of literature ; and in the only society that was 
 accessible to him — the society of the narrow-minded 
 
INDIA EIGHTY YEARS AGO — A RETROSPECT. 99 
 
 natives with whom he came into contact — there was 
 everything to lower and nothing to elevate his tone 
 of thought. So circumstanced, who can wonder that 
 he too frequently found refuge from the monotonous 
 dulness around in the fascinations of the bottle, or 
 secured the poor apology for a home that was to be 
 found in a zenana ? 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 
 
 It has been the misfortune of Anglo-Indian social 
 existence to be more frequently caricatured than 
 accurately described. It has been depicted by ima- 
 ginative writers who had no personal experience 
 whatever of it ; by occasional travellers who have 
 ' done ' India, during one cold season, at the rate of 
 several thousand square miles per diem; and by 
 some few of the Anglo-Indian community who knew 
 more or less of what they were writing about ; but 
 the bulk of the descriptive writing devoted to this 
 subject has inclined towards inaccuracy, and conveyed 
 many false impressions as to the life of the English 
 in India. 
 
 To the readers of those serial publications which, 
 for the trifling consideration of a penny, give two 
 half-page illustrations and half a dozen murders in 
 eight pages, India has been portrayed with about 
 the same amount of truth as has characterised the 
 delineation of the English aristocracy offered to the 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 101 
 
 public in these cheap journals. The writers who 
 (speaking of the daily life of the town in which they 
 have their local habitation) describe our hereditary 
 peers as libertines who relieve the tedium of legisla- 
 tion by the forcible abduction of virtuous spinsters 
 of the lower orders, acknowledge but few restrictions 
 when it occurs to them to depict the existence of 
 people who live (or who are supposed to live) many 
 thousands of miles away ; and so it comes about that 
 the masses are taught how, in India, the meritorious 
 English soldier wins for his bride the beautiful and 
 highly educated daughter of some rich Brahmin, 
 with a dower of some fancy sum in crores, and an 
 impossible quantity of diamonds, the smallest of which 
 is considerably larger than the Koh-i-noor ; how the 
 lovely and haughty lady Were de Were discards a 
 select circle of British nobility and gentry for the 
 sake of the lowly, but brave and handsome, young 
 sepoy of her father's regiment, with whom, as her 
 husband, she lives ' happily for ever afterwards : * and 
 other matters, which are just as thrilling as they are 
 absurdly untrue. 
 
 The stage, too, and more particularly the stage 
 eastwards and transpontine, has done its best to 
 mystify the British public in respect of India both 
 socially and geographically. In one piece, which 
 was supposed to represent some of the incidents of 
 the mutiny of 1857, Cawnpore was, somehow, con- 
 
102 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 fused with the neighbourhood of Niagara, and a 
 cataract and mountain pass were represented as the 
 natural features of a country which is really as flat 
 and almost as dry as the desert. In the same piece, 
 if we mistake not, the plot turned on the romantic 
 love of a young Hindoo male and English damsel ; 
 and in other instances the mirror that has been held 
 up to Indian nature by the ' Vic ' and similar 
 dramatic institutions, has been equally unhappy in 
 what it has shadowed forth. 
 
 But the west-end stage is not wholly blameless in 
 this respect. Eight years ago there was played at 
 a theatre in the very heart of St. James's, a comedy 
 which, while it pretended to great accuracy and 
 much detail, was as gross a travesty of Anglo-Indian 
 social life as the avowed burlesque ' Brown and the 
 Brahmins.' The scene lies at a hill station in India, 
 and obviously one of Bengal. The nearer slopes of 
 the hills are bright with the rich flowers of the 
 rhododendron : around are to be seen the ' vast ridges 
 and profound valleys of the Himalaya ; ' and in the 
 distance, towering over all, ' the great snowy range 
 glittering in the sky.' Except that the snowy range 
 does not glitter when viewed from the houses of any 
 hill station, this description applies with tolerable 
 correctness to Simla or Mussoorie, or any other sana- 
 torium to which, in the hot weather, the Anglo- 
 Indian betakes himself. But we find the characters 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 103 
 
 in this comedy constantly deploring the very trying 
 heat of this hill station, and to this we must object, 
 because the climate of an Indian hill station, what- 
 ever may be its defects on the score of damp, is 
 certainly unobjectionable as to temperature during 
 the summer months. This is, however, a trifling 
 error compared with those which occur in the de- 
 scription of the manners and customs of Anglo-Indian 
 society. An officer, and presumably a gentleman, 
 is made to address a refined and youthful lady with 
 whom he is slightly acquainted, thus — ( A bottle of 
 B. B. for me ! I'm as seedy as a P. and 0. fowl, 
 this morning ! I was up till gunfire at blind-hookey. 
 Such a wet night, and such a jolly shindy in the 
 bazaar, coming home from the Major's bungalow.' 
 This gallant gentleman and a brother officer, when 
 paying a morning visit, are described as calling for 
 brandy and soda and bitter beer, as though the 
 fashionable lady on whom they have called were the 
 proprietress of a drinking bar. The majority of the 
 dramatis persona? are either too enervated to do any- 
 thing, or energetic only in doing what should be 
 left undone. And the absurdity culminates in the 
 betrothal to a native femme de chambre of a military 
 Adonis who is the life and spirit of the mess-room 
 and the idol of the fair sex generally. 
 
 There is much misconception afloat as to the 
 characteristics and habits of the Anglo-Indian He 
 
104 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 is not the luxurious and listless money-grub or 
 dissipated idler that many suppose. He certainly 
 lives in a large house and keeps more horses, car- 
 riages, and servants than he would consider necessary 
 in England; but he does this of necessity. As to 
 houses, it is simply an impossibility to the European 
 to keep his health living in a small room in the 
 plains of India. Throughout the greater part of the 
 country it is absolutely necessary that, during the 
 heat of the day, the outer air should be carefully 
 excluded from the Indian mansion, and the Anglo- 
 Indian finds himself shut in at seven a.m. with the 
 supply of oxygen that is to last him until six p.m. 
 To reduce the cubic contents of his apartment is 
 simply to condemn him to the inhalation of so much 
 more poison, and so he lives in rooms that are lofty 
 and spacious. But beyond size an Indian house is 
 seldom ambitious to make a show. No costly 
 papering drapes the walls ; rarely is there any pre- 
 tension to decorative effect ; rich mouldings, cornices, 
 headings, &c, are conspicuous by their absence ; and 
 very seldom does the upholsterer do more for these 
 eastern interiors than supply the simple furniture 
 which is indispensable. Calcutta is styled the c city 
 of palaces,' but beyond the fact that it presents to 
 the eye several rows of lofty houses with wide 
 verandahs, broad porticos, and an ostentatious dis- 
 play of high pillars, it is difficult to say upon what 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 105 
 
 grounds it assumes this title. The materials of 
 which the Calcutta palaces are constructed are the 
 plebeian brick and mortar; stucco does duty for 
 stone in the exteriors ; shell-lime occupies the place 
 of marble within ; and the walls of the interior, in 
 their coating of whitewash, have much more of the 
 barn -like than the palatial character about them. 
 
 In the Mofussil (i.e. in the country or out of the 
 Presidency towns) the resemblance to a barn is not 
 confined to the penetralia ; many of the best houses 
 (in some parts all of them) are thatched bungalows — 
 very lofty and spacious tenements, admirably adapted 
 to the climate, but very like the outhouses on a 
 prosperous English farm withal. 
 
 Let us look into an Anglo-Indian house or bun- 
 galow of average comfort and style, and see to what 
 extent luxury exists therein. We drive in our buggy 
 to the portico and are received there by a servant 
 who will inform us whether we are to be admitted. 
 If the master and mistress are not visible, we are not 
 dismissed with the conventional falsehood that every- 
 body is out, but there are uttered to us the mystic 
 words, ' durwaza bund 9 (the door is closed), and, 
 leaving our cards, we drive off. Supposing that we 
 are to be admitted, our cards are taken in, the 
 bearer of them returns with the brief message 
 ' salaam, 9 and we enter. If it be the hot weather 
 when we call, it will be some minutes before our eyes 
 
106 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 get accustomed to the obscurity of the chamber into 
 which we are ushered. Coming out of the glare of 
 sunlight into the Cimmerian gloom of the drawing- 
 room, we may very possibly distinguish our entrance by 
 tumbling over an ornamental table and bowing apolo- 
 getically to an anti-macassar which we mistake for 
 the reclining form of our hostess. But growing accus- 
 tomed to the light (or darkness) we see the objects that 
 surround us. Item : we see walls that are simply 
 whitewashed, or, at the most, stained in some low 
 tint, which is relieved by a picked-out panelling in a 
 darker shade. Item : above our heads are the beams 
 which support the roof, and no attempt has been 
 made to suppress the fact that these are beams or 
 hide the naked deformity of the timber. But if we 
 are in a bungalow we see, instead of the beams, a 
 whitewashed cloth, that is generally loose enough to 
 flap about gracefully at every gust of wind, often 
 torn, and invariably the play-ground of those rats 
 which grow weary of the monotony of the sloping 
 thatch above. Item: above our heads is also the 
 punkah — a cumbrous frame of wood and cloth, to 
 which is appended a sweeping and heavy curtain 
 that does a considerable amount of amateur hair- 
 brushing by machinery for any gentleman of moderate 
 dimensions who stands beneath it. This machine 
 runs nearly the length of the room, and is supported 
 from the roof by vertical and cross ropes, draped in 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 107 
 
 coloured cloth. Item : beneath our feet is matting — 
 cool and pleasant to look upon, but not pretending 
 to the splendour of even the simple Kidderminster — 
 and, very possibly, much eaten away in many places by 
 white ants. Here it may be mentioned that the 
 white ant has a peculiar regard for matting as a 
 comestible. There are few things that these neu- 
 ropterous insects will not devour; they establish a 
 colony in a trunk, and devour a wardrobe at the rate 
 of a dress-coat a day ; they mount to the roof and 
 eat away the beams and rafters as though the solid 
 timbers were but wine biscuits ; they penetrate the 
 walls and make substantial repasts upon brick and 
 mortar ; and it is recorded that when a deficit was 
 discovered in the cash balance of a native treasurer, 
 that functionary explained the discrepancy by the 
 statement that white ants had eaten the rupees. 
 They will eat most things, but matting is a light 
 delicacy that has an irresistible attraction for 
 them, and it may be said, without much exaggeration, 
 that they commence their ravages at one end of a 
 mat before the other has been nailed down. Item : 
 large windows (which an Irishman might say are all 
 doors) furnished with folding glass casements and 
 outer Venetian doors, open out into the verandahs, 
 the glass doors being closed to exclude the air, and 
 the Venetians to keep out the light : the said windows 
 being very rarely decorated with curtains. 
 
108 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Coming to the observation of the furniture, we first 
 notice that there are few or none of the mirrors, 
 gaseliers, chandeliers, and handsome stoves or fire- 
 places that are to be found in the well-to-do English 
 home. There may be a few hanging lamps in the 
 corners of the room, but the punkah ordinarily 
 occupies the best part of the ceiling accommodation. 
 In Northern India there is to be found a stucco 
 brick and mortar fireplace and mantel-piece. Here 
 and there may be found a mirror, generally cracked 
 on its way up country. But Spartan simplicity is 
 the rule in respect of the things above indicated. 
 Otherwise also there is an absence of display. One 
 or two marble-topped tables ; two or three occasional 
 tables ; a pair of whatnots ; an ottoman ; a couch ; 
 a couple of easy chairs (chintz-covered) ; a piano of 
 uncertain tone (last tuned eight months ago, when 
 the residents of the station subscribed a gold mohur 
 each and imported a tuner from a larger station two 
 hundred miles distant) ; half a dozen chairs of mis- 
 cellaneous character, a canterbury full, or partly full 
 of obsolete music, a few engravings, and some knick- 
 knacks. Among these last, ivory carvings from Ber- 
 hampore or Bombay ; soapstone work from Agra, vases 
 and other things in glass ; photographic albums ; 
 Tennyson or Tupper in gold and morocco ; the last 
 ' Saturday Eeview ;' the last but thirty-three sen- 
 sation novel from the station book-club (three days 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 109 
 
 allowed for perusal, and it has been kept seven 
 weeks) ; some highly ornamental bnt very useless 
 writing paraphernalia in walnut or rosewood, ivory 
 and brass ; and a headless doll or some such valuable 
 of childhood (supposing there is a child upon the 
 premises). These briefly may be said to constitute 
 the furniture of the Anglo-Indian drawing-room, and 
 proportionate simplicity characterises the other 
 rooms. To prove the extent to which self-denial in 
 this respect is carried, we may mention that the 
 drawing-room table of one of India's first judges was 
 made out of two beer chests. 
 
 As to any one particular item of furniture har- 
 monising with any other there is rarely any thought 
 given. The Anglo-Indian population is a shifting 
 one, always on the move, always selling off its effects 
 at one place to buy them anew at another; and 
 every Anglo-Indian habitation assumes in some 
 degree the character of a second-hand furniture 
 warehouse or curiosity shop. If any one were inter- 
 ested in the matter, there is a history attached to 
 nearly every piece of property thus collected. The 
 chair on which we sit was bought from a distin- 
 guished civilian who was the local amphitryon until 
 his hospitality was brought to a close by dementia 
 
 (d something else some people called it). That 
 
 table was picked up when the inspector of railways 
 gave up housekeeping in consequence of his wife's 
 
110 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 prolonged absence from her Indian home. (Mrs. 
 Inspector went to England for six months to see her 
 child, but the operation of 6 seeing ' proved such a 
 lengthy one that three years brought no indication 
 of any termination to it. Every year brought to the 
 inspector, as an apology for the wife of his bosom, a 
 new photographic portrait of that sharer of his — 
 purse ; but photographs and weekly letters, breathing 
 love and hints for increased remittances, could not 
 for ever buoy up the sinking hopes of the inspector, 
 and so after three years he sold off his household 
 effects, and t went in for chumming 5 with the de- 
 puty collector.) That davenport was purchased when 
 the late judge left the country on his retiring 
 pension. That couch was added to the collection 
 when the doctor before the last, carried off by a 
 complication of coup de soleil, dysentery, and general 
 debility, left the station in a funereal palanquin. 
 And so on to the end, chairs, tables, whatnots, 
 &c. — all are souvenirs of people who have come and 
 gone ; people who were, perhaps, dear friends of ours 
 ten years ago, and who, when next we meet them, 
 will be utter strangers to us, grown out of all recog- 
 nition and full of interests with which we have no 
 affinity. 
 
 But such an establishment as we have described is 
 the abode of the Sybarite when compared with some 
 Anglo- Indian dwelling-places. Let us look up Ensign 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. Ill 
 
 De Boots of H.M.'s 150th Regiment. The ensign 
 shares a three-roomed bungalow with two brother 
 officers, and has one apartment to serve as sitting- 
 room, bedroom, harness-room, lumber-room, and 
 wine cellar. His breakfast and dining-rooms are at 
 his mess, but his one apartment, on exceptional oc- 
 casions, has to do duty even as a banqueting hall. 
 The ensign's room is crowded with furniture, but the 
 practised eye of the broker would estimate the value 
 of the lot at a glance as something like 10Z. In the 
 centre of the room, under the punkah, is a bed (the 
 charpoy of the country ; i.e. a wooden frame, upon 
 which broad tape is stretched crosswise, mounted 
 upon four roughly turned legs). In one corner is a 
 camp-table made to fold up and go into a small com- 
 pass, but never designed to fit together completely. 
 The ensign's toilet arrangements consist of (1) a brass 
 basin (chillumchee) upon a folding tripod of wood ; 
 (2) a chest of drawers, made out of a pair of 
 clothes chests, that is converted into a toilet-table 
 by placing upon it (3) a camp looking-glass which is 
 limited in size (10 inches by 6) and deficient in re- 
 flecting power, partly as a consequence of the mirror 
 being originally made out of the material ordinarily 
 used for glazing purposes, and partly because the 
 silver at the back has suffered considerably from 
 wear and tear. There are two or three lounging 
 chairs scattered about: and the remaining ground 
 
112 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 space is occupied by portmanteaus, a shako box, a 
 gun case, a three-dozen soda-water box, a one-dozen 
 brandy box, a saddle and harness rack, a miscellaneous 
 assortment of boots and shoes, ranging from the 
 modest racquet-shoe to the aristocratic Napoleon, a 
 racquet press, cricket bat and pads, some hog spears, 
 and a feeble imitation of the British Museum in the 
 shape of sundry skulls, skins, &c, of tigers, boars, 
 and other object of the chase. In the way of decora- 
 tive effect there is nothing to speak of. There are a 
 few books of the red-and-yellow-bound-one-shilling- 
 sensational school ; an odd volume or so saved from 
 the wreck of the Sandhurst library ; some books in 
 the vernacular, over which the ensign pores with a 
 moonshee with the view of passing in the languages 
 and working his way to the staff corps or to an 
 interpretership ; a heterogeneous collection of writing 
 materiel, old letters (few of them answered), bills, 
 receipts, regimental papers, cheroot-boxes, spurs, 
 whips, sticks, powder-flasks and other articles more 
 or less closely allied to the order commonly known as 
 rubbish ; and, lastly, on the walls are two framed 
 photographs, one of which the ensign, in all affection, 
 tells us is his governor, while the other represents 
 that home in the old country to which the spirit of 
 the ensign often flies while his mortal body is pre- 
 sent at the Indian parade-ground, mess or where not. 
 As to the number of servants that an Anglo- Indian 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 113 
 
 entertains, necessity must again be pleaded. The 
 household that in England would be conducted with 
 the aid of one maid of all work and an occasional 
 char-woman, is at a dead-lock in India with less 
 than a dozen or twenty servants. Ensign De Boots, 
 who keeps one pony and conducts his affairs generally 
 with due regard to economy, cannot manage with 
 fewer than ten retainers ; Mrs. Dhalbat (the wife of 
 a highly paid civilian), who is quite a proficient in 
 the arts of cheese-paring and flint-skinning, finds it 
 absolutely necessary to keep fifty. And the reason 
 of this is that the Indian domestic is to his English 
 congener as a solitary tooth is to a whole comb. 
 The active and handy housemaid who cleans the 
 house, washes a child or two, does the marketing, 
 cooks the dinner, waits at table, and performs other 
 offices, is represented in India by some ten individual 
 specimens of menial humanity. The useful young 
 man who grooms a horse, works in the garden, and 
 then brings pleasant odours of the stable and mould 
 into the dining-room while he acts as footman, has 
 no parallel in an Indian establishment. Caste or 
 custom forbids that the Indian servant should make 
 himself generally useful and live in the esteem of 
 his fellow men, and so he is generally useless. 
 
 Going over the muster roll of Ensign De Boots' 
 establishment, we find that, to do next to nothing, 
 he has ten servants, viz. : (1) a kitmutghar, or table 
 
 i 
 
114 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 attendant, whose functions are to bring his master's 
 cup of tea in the morning ; wait upon his master 
 (and nobody else) at mess ; and drink any wine or 
 spirits that may be within his reach. 
 
 2. A hearer, or valet, who keeps (or loses) his master's 
 clothes ; helps his master to dress (sometimes suggest- 
 ing some novelty such as putting on a waistcoat in- 
 side a shirt, or a pair of socks over the boots), and 
 prevents the furniture, &c, disappearing altogether 
 under a heavy stratum of dust or beneath the active* 
 mandibles of white ants. The ceremony of dusting 
 is, from its rarity, treated as a solemn festival, and 
 sacrifices of broken glass (the master's) and libations 
 of wine or brandy (also the master's) celebrate the 
 event. 
 
 3. A sweeper, who sweeps the floor, looks after 
 dogs, and performs other menial offices, which no 
 other servant will, on any consideration, put his hand 
 to. This individual, when not drunk, is generally 
 quarrelling with his wife, and very often he is both. 
 
 4. A bheestie, or water-carrier, who supplies the 
 water required in the house, the kitchen, and the 
 stable. 
 
 5. A dhobey, or washerman, who does the washing 
 of the household. N.B. The cleansing operation 
 is performed in two processes, which prove very 
 effective with fine linen. First the article (say an 
 elaborately fronted dress- shirt) is dipped into the 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 115 
 
 pond which is the dhobey's washing-tub, then, being 
 rolled up as much like a rope as possible, it is swung 
 round the dhobey's head, and brought down with 
 full force upon a corrugated plank, that is fitted up, 
 at an angle of 45°, on the margin of the water. The 
 results are, that linen is made wonderfully white, 
 and wears out in about half the time that it would 
 in England. 
 
 6. A syce, or groom, who does little except bring 
 the horse or trap round to the door when his master 
 requires it, accompany his master when he goes out, 
 sleep in the stable, and steal the horses' grain. 
 
 7. A grass-cut, who brings in the horses' grass, 
 and does the best part of the grooming work. 
 
 And 8 to 10. Three coolies who, turn by turn, 
 keep the ensign's punkah going, day and night, with 
 only those intermissions that arise accidentally out 
 of the punkah-rope breaking, or the puller falling 
 asleep. 
 
 Now, as a rule, no one of these servants will per- 
 form any duty save that which peculiarly belongs to 
 his department. A Jcitmutghar may, on an emergency, 
 offer, or consent to give, his assistance as a bearer ; 
 but he takes good care that his discharge of a bearer's 
 duties shall be such as will not encourage his master 
 to call for a repetition of this effort towards general 
 usefulness. And this is about the only concession 
 
 i 2 
 
116 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 of the kind that is to be got out of the members of 
 the establishment. 
 
 In a larger household, the domestic machinery is 
 still more complicated. To put a dinner on the table 
 it is necessary to have (1) a Jchansamah, or butler, to 
 superintend generally ; (2) a cook, with, perhaps, (3) 
 a mate or assistant ; (4) a Jcitmutghar, to assist the 
 Jchansamah in pretending to wait at table ; and (5) a 
 mussalchee, to wash the plates and dishes, and clean 
 the knives and forks. Children require something 
 like one female attendant (aiyah) per head, to insure 
 approximate cleanliness and reasonable immunity 
 from broken limbs. If there is a garden, a mahlee 
 (gardener) must be entertained for every hundred 
 square yards. Every additional horse involves the 
 necessity of keeping two additional men to look after 
 it. Every punkah that is kept continually working 
 calls in the services of its own especial menial trium- 
 virate. Two or three bearers are required to perform, 
 as far as possible, the duties of one housemaid, and 
 one is employed to attend upon the children. Two 
 or three tailors (durzees) are fully engaged in repair- 
 ing the havoc done to the linen by the washerman, 
 and in making such new garments as, for economical 
 considerations, it is inexpedient to order from a 
 milliner or haberdasher. Then there will probably 
 be from one to half a dozen chuprassies, whose duties 
 consist of sleeping in the verandah, carrying chits 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 117 
 
 (notes) about, and holding the powder and shot 
 when the master goes out shooting. And there are, 
 of course, the indispensable sweeper, water-carrier, 
 and washerman, possibly in duplicate. 
 
 The above remarks apply to all the provinces of 
 India, save Bombay and Madras. The servants of 
 these sea-board provinces are more disposed to do 
 general work, and less trammelled by caste prejudices. 
 The fc 'boy' who does the bearer's duties will, also, 
 officiate as Jcitmutghar or Jchansamah. The men em- 
 ployed in the stables will pull the punkah ;. and it is, 
 therefore, possible for the Anglo-Indian in either of 
 these two provinces to get on with a smaller establish- 
 ment than is required in other parts of India. But 
 the advantage is confined to that of numbers, for the 
 generally useful creatures of Madras and Bombay 
 who perform the duties of two departments, are paid 
 as much as any two servants of the other provinces ; 
 and the 'boy 5 whose liberal mind rises superior to 
 the narrow sectarian tenets of Hindooism and 
 Mahometanism, not unfrequently demonstrates his 
 tolerance of the faringhee manners and customs by an 
 inordinate indulgence in his master's liquors and 
 cheroots. Further, it may be observed of the Madras 
 and Bombay ' boys,' that they speak English, or some 
 apology for that language; and this is not an un- 
 mixed advantage, for, while they are not always 
 intelligible themselves, they can generally make out 
 
118 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 'what their masters say, and do not hesitate to repeat 
 in the bazaar anything of a particularly confidential 
 character that they may have overheard their master 
 or his friends give utterance to in the dining-room. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of an Anglo-Indian 
 establishment of servants, it is desirable to explain 
 that the cost of keeping these necessary incumbrances 
 is comparatively small. Native servants (with the 
 sole exception of wet-nurses) are on board wages. 
 There is no servants' hall wherefrom murmurs arise 
 because the dinner consists of cold mutton, or the 
 table beer is rather washy. Every man makes his 
 own arrangements, provides his own food, and eats 
 by himself, or with fellow servants of his own caste, 
 in the particular hut that is assigned to him as his 
 house and home. The expense of keeping a servant 
 (always excepting what he misappropriates) is his 
 wages, and the majority of those employed do not get 
 more than 10s. to 12s. a month, or 61. to 71. a year. 
 
 Reasonable, not to say insufficient, as this rate of 
 wage appears, time was when it was even lower. 
 Twenty or thirty years ago, before railways had sti- 
 mulated exportation, and lent their aid to the equali- 
 sation of prices ; before the mutiny had brought into 
 the country a host of Europeans larger than any 
 hitherto seen in the land, provisions were generally 
 cheaper, and wages proportionately lower. Even yet 
 there are tracts of country cut off from the great 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 119 
 
 markets and centres of commerce; tracts insulated 
 by the absence of road, railway, or water communica- 
 tion : where the local produce finds no sale, except at 
 prices far below those generally prevalent. But 
 twenty years ago this condition of things was more 
 marked, and applied to a greater extent of country. 
 Even now grain may be selling in the Punjaub at 
 one-third of the rate which it sells for in Madras ; 
 because the carriage of it by rail some 1,400 miles, 
 and by sea a distance that occupies a sailing ship 
 from six days to three weeks, imposes such diffi- 
 culties upi^n the conveyance of it from one point to 
 another that this is rarely attempted, save under the 
 pressure of famine. Nay, it was only the other day 
 that one million of the people of Orissa perished, 
 because the food that was plentiful enough in other 
 parts of India could not be brought within their 
 reach. And, if such a state of things exists now, it 
 can readily be imagined what it was before the iron 
 horse had commenced to run, and when other means 
 of communication were more imperfect than they are 
 at this time. Then the grower and producer were 
 excluded from the best markets ; districts went 
 through a course of plethora, during which prices 
 were disproportionately low ; and then suffered from 
 a season of dearth, without receiving sufficient relief 
 from external sources ; and the general consequence, 
 in times of average plenty, was the imposition of an 
 
120 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 unnaturally low standard of value for all local products. 
 The value of money was considerably greater than it 
 is now, and, in many parts of the Mofussil, the 
 servant who now gets ten shillings a month could be 
 hired for six. 
 
 The cost of living to the European in the Mofussil 
 twenty years ago was also very considerably less than 
 it is at present. There were far fewer consumers of 
 those articles which are mainly supplied to meet the 
 wants of the European section of the community-; 
 and it was not so easy to convey these things to the 
 large cities and towns where Europeans most do 
 congregate. In those halcyon days of domestic 
 economy, fowls and ducks could often be purchased 
 at |cZ. to lJcZ. each, where now they cost 6d. to Is.; 
 and other articles were equally cheap. 
 
 But this is rather like a digression from our sub- 
 ject, which was the defence of the Anglo-Indian on 
 the charge of extravagance in keeping a host of 
 servants, and we think it has been shown that he 
 only does in this respect what necessity compels. It 
 is possible that Ensign De Boots may have his socks 
 put on, while he yet sleeps, by his bearer; and, in 
 the heat of the day, the ensign may ' take it out in 
 sleep,' while the punkah is kept in motion over his 
 recumbent form : but he does not waste his life in 
 utter idleness, dreaming the sunny hours away while 
 dark houris brush aside the mosquitoes and fan his 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 121 
 
 cheek with peacocks' plumes ; he is as active as the 
 climate will allow, reads for four or five hours during 
 the day, does his regimental duty steadily enough, is 
 pretty good all round at cricket, racquets, billiards, 
 pig-sticking, and snipe shooting, and does not spend a 
 rupee more on his personal comfort than he can help. 
 As to keeping horses and conveyances, the defence 
 is much the same and equally conclusive as that 
 already given on another count. In a country where 
 Hansoms are not by any means omnipresent and 
 walking is often impossible, a man must keep at least 
 one horse. As a matter of economy it is better to 
 keep one horse than a palanquin and its four bearers, 
 for the horse will, at the same cost, do more work, 
 with greater expedition and comfort, than can be got 
 out of a palanquin ; and two horses can be kept for 
 the same amount as would cover the hire of one for 
 an hour or so every day. In the three capitals, 
 Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, vehicles of all sorts are 
 to be found in ranks for hire : in the principal cities 
 of the younger provinces and in some of the large 
 stations throughout the country, horses, conveyances, 
 and palanquins may be hired if one only knows 
 where to go for them; but these conveniences 
 are not to be found everywhere, and when they are 
 discovered they are by no means satisfactory speci- 
 mens of their kind. The weak- springe d, dirty, insect- 
 haunted box upon wheels (called a jpalkee gharee) of 
 
 
122 LIFE tS INDIA. 
 
 India generally, and the rickety buggy of Bombay and 
 Madras in particular, are traps that are only used by 
 Europeans upon compulsion ; the horses worked in 
 these carriages are undersized and jaded beasts, subject 
 to every equine ailment and vice ; and the drivers are 
 little better than the animals upon which they pour 
 down maledictions and lashes. Is it to be wondered 
 at that the Anglo-Indian keeps his own turn-out 
 instead of trusting to the uncertain and expensive 
 luxury of a hired one ? 
 
 To give the reader a better insight into life in 
 India, let us suppose that we are just arrived in the 
 country, and describe what would in all probability 
 be our experiences. We quitted England a month 
 ago and are now landing at Calcutta. Three days 
 ago we left Madras after a few hours' stay at that 
 capital ; and now we are at the palatial city, the 
 metropolis of India. Our impressions of the metro- 
 polis as we approach it up the Hooghly are not of 
 the most favourable order. Mosquitoes in millions 
 boarded the steamer off Saugorpoint, and two or three 
 hundred of these blood-suckers have attached them- 
 selves to us in particular ; it is very hot, and all our 
 fellow passengers are as much out of temper as we 
 are. Then the sacred stream upon which we float is 
 not calculated to incite pleasurable emotions; it is 
 very muddy (the Tiber being as clear as crystal com- 
 pared to the Hooghly) ; it too frequently suggests the 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 123 
 
 peculiar character of Hindoo funeral obsequies ; and 
 the banks on either side are monotonously low and 
 densely wooded with cocoa-nut and other palms, 
 peepul, banyan, and mangoe trees, with here and 
 there a native hamlet, and an occasional land-mark 
 or boundary pillar that has the lively appearance of 
 a solitary tomb. Then, again, the Hooghly does not 
 the more strike one agreeably because throughout 
 its' channel there are sand-banks, treacherous as the 
 Goodwins, whereupon other good ships have gone to 
 wreck heretofore and we may come to grief ourselves. 
 The spectacle of shattered masts standing up out of 
 the water that flows over the James and Mary bank 
 is not a singularly happy one, and this is one of the 
 principal objects of interest that greet us. But in 
 spite of the dangers of the channel we see every indi- 
 cation of mercantile activity : sailing vessels of from 
 500 to 1,500 tons, tugged by wheezy little steamers, 
 pass us as we ascend the river, or are passed by 
 us as we proceed onwards on the same course that 
 they pursue ; hundreds of native cargo boats with 
 thatched houses for poops and ragged sails, and 
 many a diminutive fishing-boat, float on the muddy 
 bosom of the Hooghly ; and on every hand are evi- 
 dences that we are approaching a great commercial 
 centre. When we do reach the commercial centre, 
 we see the city of palaces through a forest of 
 masts. From a point a mile above Calcutta to 
 
124 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 another point just below Kidderpore (a suburb of 
 Calcutta) the river is lined on either side by ships in 
 tiers and every description of smaller craft in groups. 
 On the Calcutta side bathing ghats, with their lofty 
 pillars and flights of steps that are lost in the water, 
 appear at intervals. Along the bank on the same 
 side runs the course (the fashionable drive, the lady's 
 mile, Eotten Kow, and so forth of Calcutta), and over- 
 looking the course on one side and the fashionable 
 quarter of the city on the other is Fort William, a 
 military stronghold that is supposed to be almost 
 impregnable. 
 
 As the anchor drops in the river off the P. and 0. 
 Co.'s wharf, there is a rush of passengers to get on 
 shore, and a counter rush of friends of passengers 
 who have come from the shore to get on board. 
 Anxious husbands and fathers come off to meet wives 
 and daughters ; more anxious lovers come off to meet 
 their affianced brides ; relatives of all sorts come off to 
 meet other relatives ; and idlers come off to see what 
 the last importation of spinsters is like. For it must 
 be admitted that the steamers that arrive in India 
 during the cold weather months are reputed to carry 
 much living cargo for the matrimonial market. Of 
 the 120 passengers who have come out with us two 
 score are eligible spinsters, and it is even betting 
 that half of these will be married before the year is 
 out ; indeed six have already settled their connubial 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 125 
 
 engagements. One was wooed and won between 
 Marseilles and Alexandria, one pledged her troth 
 during the journey across the desert, two yielded 
 between Suez and Aden, and the other twain 
 succumbed, after a protracted acquaintance of three 
 weeks, somewhere in the Bay of Bengal. 
 
 But our object is to land and secure rooms at an 
 hotel, so we struggle into a shore boat with our 
 portable luggage, and, unless we are upset, reach the 
 shore. The dinghy in which we make this journey is 
 a keelless boat that threatens to capsize on the 
 slightest provocation, and we balance ourselves upon 
 it with as much anxious thought as though we were 
 performing a standing act in the circus, or taking a 
 short stroll on Blondin's high rope ; but experience 
 shows that it is not to be upset as easily as would 
 appear at first sight; though the accidents that 
 occur to these light craft are sufficiently frequent to 
 justify caution in using them. Having gained the 
 shore we engage a ticca (hired) gharee to carry us the 
 two miles that intervene between us and hotel 
 accommodation. In this four-wheeled abomination 
 we spend a perturbed half hour. The miserable jade 
 that drags it commits every irregularity of which a 
 draft horse can be capable — now shieing, and thereby 
 bringing us into collision with another vehicle— then 
 jibbing us into the road-side drain — and so on ad 
 nauseam — but we reach the hostelrie at last. Eeach 
 
126 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 it, very likely, to hear that every decent room is 
 engaged, and leave it again, only to discover that it 
 is the same elsewhere, and that we must make shift 
 with a corner somewhere or be houseless. Calcutta 
 only boasts of two decent hotels and three or four 
 small boarding establishments, and at certain periods 
 it is quite possible to find these all crowded. But as 
 there are, on the other hand, certain periods when 
 these houses of entertainment are nearly empty, it 
 would not pay to increase their number. 
 
 Time was when few travellers in India thought of 
 taking their ease at their inn. People going out 
 from England were armed with letters of introduc- 
 tion, any one of which proved an open sesame to the 
 house and hospitality of some resident. Anglo- 
 Indians travelling about the country were received, 
 as a matter of course, by any friend, or friend's 
 friend, or friend of a friend's friend, or anybody else 
 whose house might lie in their path. Hotels were 
 then far less common than they now are, and the 
 feeble imitation of an inn in the shape of a Govern- 
 ment dak bungalow, or traveller's resting-place, did 
 not hold out many attractions to induce the traveller 
 to halt at it. Nowadays the Anglo-Indian is less at 
 the mercy of chance hospitality and more indepen- 
 dent, and letters of introduction are useless documents 
 that may result in an invitation to dinner, or, as 
 likely as not, have no result at all. 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 127 
 
 So we settle down, somehow, at one of the public 
 caravansarais of Calcutta and look about us. We 
 have expressed a wish to have a servant, and are, in 
 the course of an hour, besieged by a crowd of appli- 
 cants for employment. All these would-be retainers 
 of ours have chits (certificates — which are generally 
 borrowed and often forged) that give to their holders 
 all the virtues under the sun. Never, apparently, 
 had such a collection of industry, honesty, and 
 general worth, thrown out of employ by a concate- 
 nation of unfortunate circumstances, been gathered 
 together as that we now see before us. The members 
 of this body have each and all been model servants, 
 with whom former masters have parted only because 
 they (the masters) were leaving the country or giving 
 up housekeeping. But the chits often bear contra- 
 diction on their face. Peer Bux, an ancient with one 
 leg in the grave, presents a chit which, bearing a 
 date of last year, speaks of him as a young and active 
 stripling. Kali Dass, who is obviously hardly out 
 of his teens, has a certificate that commends him for 
 fifteen years' faithful service. Some of the chits 
 are dated many years back ; and not a few are 
 written in English which is utterly subversive of all 
 ordinary ideas of syntax or orthography, or bear the 
 sign manual of personages as hypothetical as Sarah 
 Gamp's Mrs. Harris. Further experience teaches us 
 that these chits, whether genuine or forged, are often 
 
128 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 hired out at so much a day, and that many of them 
 are written and sold by half-castes, who indulge in 
 all the hyperbole of the native and only a part of 
 that regard for Lindley Murray which distinguishes 
 the Englishman of ordinary education. 
 
 But, being uninitiated, we select a servant from 
 the crowd before us upon the strength of his (or 
 somebody's) certificate, and, it is unnecessary to say, 
 discover subsequently that we have taken a domestic 
 viper to our bosom. This settled, we give audience, 
 unwillingly, to a series of native visitors who break 
 in upon our solitude, often unannounced, with the 
 view of serving us (and themselves) somehow. Box- 
 wallas (hawkers) waut us to invest in tape, cotton, 
 sardines, note-paper, salad-oil, steel-pens, pomatum, 
 blacking, or bottles of acidulated drops. Tailors 
 suggest that we shall allow them to fit us out with 
 suits of fancy tweed, calico shirts with linen fronts, 
 and fancy jpaijamas. Barbers volunteer to shave us 
 or cut our hair ; itinerant tobacconists proffer villa- 
 nous cheroots, branded as being the manufacture of 
 Manilla, but too obviously the produce of the country ; 
 and commercial rovers of other sorts force themselves 
 and their wares upon our attention until it is clearly 
 proved that we are not to be victimised, or until our 
 rising indignation shows that we are not to be 
 attacked with safety. 
 
 Coming to the analysis of Calcutta life we note 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 129 
 
 what passes during the day. At dawn the native 
 inhabitants are np and about — (for a native, though 
 he may sleep nearly all day, will rise before the 
 sun) — and the streets and roads show signs of life 
 once more. Troops of natives, male and female, 
 pour down to the river to bathe ; and the servants of 
 the European quarter commence their day's work ; 
 kitchen servants prepare the early morning tea of 
 their masters, syces saddle horses, and bearers and 
 aiyahs wake their masters and mistresses. Then the 
 day commences for the Anglo-Indian. Possibly he 
 takes it easily enough and goes through no more 
 exertion than is required to get from his bed to an 
 easy chair in the verandah, where he reads the 
 morning paper, smokes his cheroot, and drinks his 
 cup of tea. But he may do more than this — he may 
 mount his horse and have an hour's canter on the 
 race- course or maidan (a large plain between the 
 course and fashionable quarter), where he will meet 
 half a dozen equally energetic Europeans. At this 
 time unhappy Anglo-Indian babes are dragged out 
 of their beds and paraded along the roads to ' eat the 
 air ' (as it is described in the language of the country) 
 and as much dust as may be available for consump- 
 tion. Very wan and pallid little people are these 
 infant exotics ; sadly listless the gaze of these 
 nurslings who are veterans of many campaigns in 
 which Death has been their foe ; dysentery and fever 
 
130 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 have been their portion just as measles and whooping- 
 cough are the lot of the young ones in an English 
 nursery ; calomel and chalk mixture are as familiar 
 to them as their bread and butter — but, faded flowers 
 that they are, selfish affection keeps them under an 
 Indian sun until the necessity of sending them to 
 Europe can be no longer resisted ; and, hence, one 
 sees them thus snatched from their morning sleep 
 and sent out to gather those roses that will never 
 bloom for them until they have reached their father- 
 land. 
 
 There is a time, however, when the Anglo-Indians 
 of Calcutta are to be found abroad betimes in con- 
 siderable numbers. That time is when the first and 
 second race-meetings occur. To suit the convenience 
 of business men (and nearly every man in Calcutta has 
 business to attend to) the races are run early in the 
 morning, and not unfrequently in a heavy fog, which 
 is a London November fog minus the smoke. On 
 race mornings hundreds collect upon the stand or 
 take up their stations in carriages by the side of the 
 course. Civilians, military men, merchants, and pro- 
 fessional men, with their wives and daughters 
 (sometimes), native princes, Baboos of the young 
 Bengal school, and Arab horse-dealers, with their 
 wives never, in every description of conveyance — 
 drag, mail-phseton, barouche, brougham, buggy, 
 dog-cart, and palkee-gharee — throng the roads that 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 131 
 
 lead to the course. But beyond the actual racing, 
 which too frequently degenerates into a 'walk over/ 
 and the prospect of meeting several acquaintances 
 whom one met last night, and will probably meet 
 again to-morrow, there is nothing to incite anyone 
 to get up at an abnormally early hour. There are 
 none of the incidental attractions that make up the 
 life of a great English race-meeting. Ethiopian 
 serenaders, fortune tellers, thimble-riggers, Punch 
 and Judy, knock-'em-downs, and other similar 
 entertainments, are unknown. There is no necessity 
 for a champagne luncheon neatly packed away in a 
 hamper and enjoyed al fresco, because everybody 
 drives or rides home in a matter-of-fact way to 
 breakfast. And there is little betting. But the 
 races are something to be seen, and numbers attend 
 them for this reason, without feeling any particular 
 interest in the horses that run, or entertaining any 
 decided opinion that they are enjoying themselves. 
 
 On ordinary occasions the Anglo-Indian of Cal- 
 cutta does not make his appearance before the 
 world until after breakfast. At eight or half-past 
 eight he tubs and dresses ; at nine or ten he has his 
 breakfast ; and immediately after this he drives off 
 to his office, or goes to his business, whatever that 
 may be, for the day. At two he breaks the monotony 
 of the daily routine by taking luncheon, and at four 
 or five his labours are over. Then, if actively 
 
 x 2 
 
132 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 inclined, he may, if it be cold weather, play cricket, 
 or, if it be hot, play racquets, or, in any case, ride or 
 take a constitutional. There is the excellent cricket- 
 ground of the C. C. C. for the upper ten of Calcutta 
 society, and there are other grounds on the maidan 
 for the lower strata of the social world ; and if these 
 are not as crowded as Lord's, the lover of the game 
 will generally find some of his acquaintances there, 
 or, at all events, he can stand up at a wicket, and 
 have a native to throw at him for an hour. There is 
 also a very good double court for racquets, but this, 
 like the C. C. C, is open exclusively to the local 
 aristocracy, and admission is only conceded by the 
 procedure — being proposed, seconded, and balloted 
 for — that precedes admission to club privileges. 
 
 Parenthetically, we may observe, that the noble 
 art of cricket is now pursued in India under circum- 
 stances far more favourable than those which sur- 
 rounded it in the pre-railway days. Then it was not 
 possible to bring rival elevens together from any 
 distance, or to make up an eleven the component 
 members of which were widely separated. The stock 
 matches of the Calcutta cricket season of that period 
 were those made up within the C. C. C, and the few 
 played by the C. C. C. with the military of Fort 
 William and the adjacent cantonments, Barrackpore 
 and Dumdum, and the rival clubs of Calcutta. A 
 satisfactory match with a Moffussil eleven could 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 133 
 
 hardly be brought about, when to travel a distance 
 of sixty miles involved a palanquin dak of twenty 
 hours, and only five or six out of an eleven could 
 be obtained within that distance. Now Bengal 
 meets the North-west provinces and Oude, and the 
 rival elevens are composed of picked men who are 
 brought from scattered stations hundreds of miles 
 from the place of meeting. 
 
 For the Calcutta man who does not incline to 
 athletic sports there is nothing to be done after the 
 hours of business but to drive home, have his glass of 
 sherry, dress, and go upon the course. On the course 
 we meet nearly everybody whom it is the right thing 
 to know, and a great many that it is the right thing 
 not to know. A long string of vehicles of every 
 description, sometimes two or three deep, goes up the 
 roadway, while another string goes down it. There 
 may be seen the equipage of the Governor-General, 
 with the attendant body-guards in scarlet and much 
 gold; there are the well-appointed carriages of 
 mercantile magnates, eminent judges, learned 
 members of the bar, distinguished civilians, and 
 gallant generals and colonels ; there is the high 
 dog- cart of young Bengal, and the hired buggy, 
 very shaky as to its springs, and much indebted to 
 stray pieces of rope as to its harness, in which three 
 happy British tars are taking a preliminary airing 
 before making a night of it. On the course are to 
 
134 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 be seen people of all ranks and all nations. Stray 
 representatives of all the nationalities of Europe 
 -come from the shipping in the river; Armenians, 
 Parsees (those quiet, charitable, money -making fire- 
 worshippers), Eurasians, and people from all parts of 
 India come from the native quarter of the city ; and 
 from the European quarter flock the Anglo-Indians 
 of many degrees. And, numerous as the carriages 
 are, the piece of turf railed off for equestrians is 
 generally occupied by a very respectable number of 
 riders of both sexes. 
 
 The passage up and down the course is no holiday 
 task to the man who has a large circle of acquain- 
 tances, and wishes to stand well with all. Eor all 
 useful purposes he might as well be without a hat, so 
 often has he to remove it from his head. But bowing 
 to everyone he knows, at the rate of ten salutations a 
 minute, while the daylight lasts, is nothing compared 
 with the performance of this act of politeness when 
 it is too dark to admit of his recognising friends or 
 strangers distinctly. All the world appears upon the 
 course after sunset; the Indian twilight is a very 
 brief one ; and darkness falls upon the scene before 
 the world leaves the drive. So it happens that an 
 unfortunate may pass the carriage of a most intimate 
 acquaintance without making a sign, and then bestow 
 his sweetest smile and lowest bow upon Mrs. Cowry, 
 whose only pretensions to be known to him are that 
 her husband supplies him with bottled beer. 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 135 
 
 From the drive the Anglo-Indian world proceeds 
 to dinner, and, in the ordinary course of things, 
 dines and retires to rest at an early hour. Ex- 
 ceptionally it may happen that the lady of the 
 house (where there is one) entertains her liege lord 
 with a little music while he dozes over a book or 
 smokes his cheroot, but more probably she does a 
 little of that elaborate work which occupies a small 
 basket for months, and never appears to be turned 
 to any practical account. For ladies in India do 
 not, as a rule, keep up any accomplishments except 
 dancing ; they, perhaps, let off a few musical fire- 
 works, or play an accompaniment to a song at large 
 gatherings, when the people who are loudest in their 
 call for music are loudest in the conversational din 
 that drowns it ; they have pianos in their drawing- 
 rooms waiting for that moment (which rarely arrives) 
 when they will have energy and inclination to play 
 upon them ; but music is not to them a cherished 
 art ; it is rather a social penance which has to be 
 undergone with a good grace, and forgotten as soon 
 as possible. So it is with painting and drawing. 
 Young ladies arrive in India with a stock of drawing 
 materials that would keep half a dozen Associates of 
 the Eoyal Acadamy supplied for several months. 
 They have been taught by masters at school, and by 
 governesses at home ; they have taken lessons at a 
 guinea an hour, or graduated at South Kensington ; 
 
136 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 they have contributed to the picture galleries of 
 friends and relations ambitious pieces with a good 
 deal of very cobalt water and sky, very purple hills, 
 and many palpable touches by the master's hand in 
 them ; but arrived in India they turn their backs 
 upon art. For the first six months they are too 
 much occupied in studying the novelties around 
 them ; then their attention is taken up by the more 
 important business that culminates in an engage- 
 ment, and then, as married women, they have their 
 household affairs to look after. The neglected moist 
 colour-box falls a prey to mildew, damp seizes upon 
 the drawing-blocks, and white ants devour the brushes 
 that were to have effected such artistic triumphs. 
 Dancing alone withstands the influence of the Indian 
 climate ; maids, wives, and widows — young ladies of 
 sixteen and old ladies of sixty — are to be found 
 dancing whenever the opportunity occurs; and, as 
 the proportion of dancing men to dancing ladies is 
 generally four to one in an Indian ball-room, few 
 of the fair sex, whatever their deficiencies in charms 
 or excess in years, need despair in finding partners. 
 Dancing is almost the only pedestrian exercise that 
 Anglo-Indian ladies take : walking is impracticable 
 in the heat of the day, and not tempting in the 
 morning and evening ; croquet played after sunset 
 does not afford opportunities for much pedestrian- 
 ism; and dancing is, therefore, the only practical 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 137 
 
 test that Anglo-Indian ladies have not altogether 
 lost the use of their legs for purposes of locomotion. 
 
 As dancing is not an every-day occupation, or one 
 that can while away the hours between 10 a.m. and 
 5 p.m., it is necessary to see what the Anglo-Indian 
 lady does while her husband is at his work. Well, 
 she has her domestic affairs to look after. In the 
 first place, the Jchansamah's accounts have to be 
 audited and dinner ordered. She calls the servant, 
 who sits outside the door (bells are not often used for 
 this purpose), and tells him to call the hhansamah. 
 Khansamah is called and, in the fulness of time and 
 when he has put on his turban and waistband, comes. 
 Khansamah bears a formidable roll of paper in his 
 hand, from which he proceeds to read of fabulous 
 quantities of eggs, milk, meat, and so forth, that he 
 persuades his mistress were used the day before. 
 Mistress objects to the sum total and intimates her 
 wish to have this reduced. Khansamah explains that 
 his hoormut (dignity) will be lowered and himself 
 beggared if he takes a farthing less than the full 
 amount, and then, in the blandest manner, consents 
 to reduce the bill by four shillings. (N.B. — This is 
 a little farce that is played nearly every day.) This 
 matter amicably settled, dinner is ordered, and the 
 khansamah disappears. 
 
 Here it may be observed that the Anglo-Indian 
 sees little of the articles he consumes until they are 
 
138 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 put upon the table. The shops of butchers, poul- 
 terers, dairymen, grocers, &c, do not stare him in 
 the face when he goes into the trading quarter ; the 
 carts of these tradespeople do not call at his door; 
 his Mansamah is told what is required, disappears 
 into by-ways and secluded bazaars, and emerges 
 with a complete commissariat. And here, also, it 
 may be stated that the Anglo-Indian cannot be 
 charged with riotous living. Yery quiet are the 
 arrangements of the every-day breakfast and dinner 
 table, and the greatest display made at the hurra 
 Jchana (big dinner) involves a smaller outlay than 
 that of an ordinary English entertainment. There 
 are no hot-house fruit and out-of- season delicacies, 
 bought for their weight in silver, upon the Indian 
 banquet-table. Hermetically-sealed provisions are 
 always in season, if not always very fresh, and the 
 ham, salmon, pates-truffees, mushrooms, green peas, 
 &c, that eke out the native turkey and saddle of 
 mutton, are put before the Anglo-Indian at % a cost 
 little exceeding their mean price in England. 
 Neither can it be said that the Anglo-Indian is un- 
 usually extravagant in the matter of wine, although 
 his consumption of bitter beer and soda-water may 
 sometimes exceed the English standard of consump- 
 tion. 
 
 Returning to the lady whom we left when she dis- 
 missed her khansamah, we find her giving audience 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 139 
 
 to other domestics. The hearer has to explain away 
 a trifling difficulty about a vase that has been broken 
 since last night, and is fluent in his assurances that 
 it was broken six months ago, and before he was in 
 the house — that one of the children broke it— or 
 anything else that he thinks his mistress may believe. 
 The tailor has to be directed as to the construction 
 of a new dress ; and other servants have to be 
 addressed or listened to. Then, if there are children, 
 those young people have to be looked after ; and with 
 these occupations and a little fancy work or a novel, 
 the morning passes away until it is time to receive 
 visitors. Occasionally this routine is broken by the 
 lady of the house going out in the morning to do a 
 little slipping ; but even in Calcutta, shops are not 
 sufficiently numerous to make this a work of unceas- 
 ing interest ; and so the fancy work, the novel, the 
 children, and the servants, beguile the early hours of 
 the Anglo-Indian lady's daily life. 
 
 But, from twelve to two she may anticipate the 
 arrival of visitors, and she sits, conversationally 
 equipped, ready to receive them. At 12.30 gong at 
 the gate sounds once (it sounds once for a gentleman, 
 twice for a lady, and three times for the doctor), 
 buggy drives to the door, and bearer ushers in Mr. 
 A., a .middle-aged civilian, who has torn himself 
 away from his official duties to make two or three 
 calls. The conversation does not drag; Mr. A* is 
 
140 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 started before he is fairly seated, and will not allow 
 .a pause to occur if lie remain till midnight. But 
 Mr. A.'s ideas are contracted, and often 'shoppy.' 
 Hear him : — 
 
 6 Very nice party that of the Tackers, wasn't it ? 
 Nice people the Tackers ; and that daughter of 
 theirs is charming. Pity she should be allowed to 
 encourage thatyoung Colster — an uncovenanted man, 
 who only gets 400 (rupees) a month now, and can't 
 hope ever to get more than a thousand. And there's 
 Chalks tone, who has got his Sudder judgeship 
 pucca, mad about her, and she won't look at him. 
 Heard of poor Muddlebury ? Poor fellow — judge at 
 Bubblepore, sentenced the prosecutor to be hanged 
 instead of the prisoner, and has been removed and 
 degraded to a collectorship ; come down from 2,500 
 to 1,900 (rupees a month understood), and his wife's 
 living at Genoa at the rate of 3,000Z. a year. Capital 
 thing for us these new furlough rules. Seen to-day's 
 ' En glishman ? ' Yery abusive article in it about 
 young Jones's appointment to the superintendentship 
 of gasometers, over the heads of two hundred seniors ; 
 accuses Lieutenant-Governor of nepotism, and talks 
 about official corruption. Very absurd. Nice fellow 
 Jones ; plays the violin, and is an immense addition 
 to Calcutta society. They say he has never had any ex- 
 perience in gasometers. Eidiculous ! If he can master 
 the violin, he can master gasometers, of course ! ' 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 141 
 
 This, and more in the same strain being poured 
 forth by Mr. A., that gentleman takes his departure. 
 To him succeed other members of society ; officers 
 from the Fort, merchants, and others. Officers from 
 the Fort do not ask for soda and B.'s, or describe to 
 their hostess the orgies in which they passed the 
 previous night. Yery likely some of them (and a 
 good many civilians as well) find India unfruitful, 
 conversationally considered, and wish, during an 
 uncomfortable pause, that calling were not one of the 
 amenities of social life ; but if, at the worst, they do 
 not entertain a lady with what she ought to hear, 
 they do not insult her by talking of what she ought 
 not to listen to. 
 
 Employed until 2 or 2.30 p.m. in entertaining 
 visitors, the lady of the house finds it necessary to 
 restore exhausted nature by a light tiffin, and during 
 the afternoon prepares herself for the evening drive 
 by a short siesta, or more crochet- working and novel- 
 reading. About sunset she is prepared to go on the 
 course, and finish the day as we have already 
 described. 
 
 This is the ordinary routine of Anglo-Indian life in 
 Calcutta, and, in most respects, it is very much the 
 same elsewhere in India. During the greater part 
 of the year it is not possible for ladies to spend any 
 considerable portion of the day out of doors, and it is 
 rarely practicable for them to do so even in the cold 
 
142 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 season. They cannot occupy their time after the 
 fashion of their English sisters. The open-air em- 
 ployments and amusements of country life and town 
 life in England are denied to them. Pleasant walks 
 or drives through a picturesque country, visits to the 
 poor, school-teaching, water parties, archery meet- 
 ings, and flower shows (with other home attractions), 
 are unknown. There is nothing resembling the 
 morning concerts, exhibitions of pictures, and other 
 indoor entertainments, which afford agreeable occu- 
 pation during the day in London; and from morn 
 to dewy eve there is little prospect of any relief to 
 the every-day round of business, domestic duties, 
 and social boredom that we have sketched. 
 
 The evening may bring forth something that 
 disturbs this monotonous harmony. A dinner party, 
 a concert, a ball, or theatricals. Of the first of these 
 it can rarely be said that it is any improvement upon 
 the quiet dreariness that it interrupts. One Anglo- 
 Indian burra-khana is the counterpart of another, 
 and, in many respects, very like the typical dinner- 
 party of England. Twenty to thirty people are 
 collected together to eat the inevitable turkey and 
 saddle of mutton, and dinner is served fifty minutes 
 after time because somebody of importance chooses 
 to arrive late. During the hour and a quarter 
 preceding the feast, gentlemen gather in groups 
 round the room, and talk shop ; and ladies cling to 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 143 
 
 each other in couples and talk millinery or nursery ; 
 host and hostess, on tenter-hooks, making futile 
 attempts to introduce upon the scene an air of 
 enjoyment. Pinner is announced, and male guests, 
 according to table of precedence, offer their arms to 
 ladies and lead them to the banquet. Table of pre- 
 cedence does not account for the relative position of 
 people out of Government employ, and excludes from 
 all position every uncovenanted civilian. Difficulties 
 arise. Diffident civilian (covenanted) of five years' 
 standing does not like preceding his seniors who 
 are not in the Civil Service, and fails to advance at 
 the right moment. Table of precedence is upset, 
 couples are not properly sorted, and hostess sits down 
 to dinner a miserable woman. Dinner is protracted 
 over a period of two hours and a half, during which 
 time the Mtmutghars of the several guests (each guest 
 has his own) are engaged in internecine strife and 
 noisy struggle for possession of some dish. Dinner 
 over, guests return to drawing-room, break up into 
 groups, and talk while one or two victims play or 
 sing. Half an hour is so spent, and then the leading- 
 lady (the hurra mem), watching her opportunity, rises 
 to wish her hostess and host good night, and is fol- 
 lowed by all the other guests. 
 
 Concerts are not of very frequent occurrence, and 
 are generally given by amateurs. Occasionally a few 
 travelling professionals give a musical entertainment 
 
144 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 (probably of the Christy Minstrels order). But, as 
 a rule, concerts are projected by non-professionals, 
 and little is to be said about them. 
 
 Dances are more general and more successful. 
 Small communities have their carpet hops ; large 
 communities have more ambitious parties. There are 
 the balls given, ex officio as it were, by the Viceroy, 
 the Governor, Lieutenant-Governors, and Comman- 
 ders-in-Chief; there are regimental balls; there are 
 balls given by large stations to some great star who 
 has fallen upon them ; balls given by the civilians to 
 the military; balls given by individuals who have 
 300L to 500L to throw away ; subscription balls and 
 reunions. In every station there is a room which is 
 large enough for the purpose, and, with few excep- 
 tions, every lady in the country will give all the 
 assistance in her power to those who get up a dance. 
 For it is something to think about, something to talk 
 over, and something that affords immediate occupa- 
 tion. Dresses have to be made, early engagements 
 with eligible partners have to be settled, and, very 
 likely, decorations have to be contributed. The 
 young lady who ordinarily takes as little exercise as 
 a Chinese dame of high degree, will, in the interests 
 of a ball, shrink from no exertion.' She would hardly 
 refuse to scrub the floor ; for the ball is to bring her 
 hour of triumph : then she will be surrounded by a 
 crowd of devoted men all supplicants for her hand in 
 
DOMESTIC INTERIORS. 145 
 
 the dance; then she will be able to reward the 
 virtuous youth who is fast and smooth in the valtz, 
 and snub the awkward wretch whose movements in a 
 round dance are as the gambollings, of a young 
 hippopotamus: then will come her apotheosis, and 
 she can afford to work hard to bring about that 
 hour of glory. 
 
 To Anglo-Indian ladies generally a ball is some- 
 thing to be thought of with pleasure. As we have 
 said before, it is sufficient that a woman is a woman, 
 and she is sure of partners. But if it happen that 
 an Anglo-Indian matron does not dance, she can at 
 at all events enjoy the success, and sympathise in the 
 pleasure, of the daughter, sister, or other young lady 
 whose chaperone she is. To the elderly man and to 
 the clumsy terpsichorean male a ball in India is a 
 social ordeal of the most dismal character. 
 
 For theatrical representations the Anglo-Indian is 
 generally indebted to amateurs, and when the corps 
 dramatique is non-professional the performances are 
 few and very far between. Of late years Calcutta 
 has been able to boast of possessing, for some months 
 at least, an opera, or theatre, or circus, or band of 
 serenaders ; and sometimes it has had two or three of 
 these at the same time. But rich as Calcutta is, and 
 much as entertainment of any kind is wanting, pro- 
 fessionals are but indifferently supported ; and so the 
 companies of opera, theatre, circus, and negro 
 
 L 
 
146 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 minstrels, seek in different stations about the country 
 that support which the metropolis fails to give. The 
 Calcutta man regrets that this should be so, and 
 deplores the dulness of the city in which he dwells ; 
 he is loud in his denunciations of the public that fails 
 to support professional talent ; but, when professional 
 talent reappears, he leaves it to other citizens to 
 recognise it, and says for himself, that it is all very 
 well but he cannot be bothered by going out after 
 dinner. 
 
147 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 
 
 We have already mentioned that by the term 
 c Moffussil ■ is generally understood any part of India 
 other than the three capitals, Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay. The justice of the proceeding by which 
 these particular cities are graded above Allahabad, 
 Lahore, Lucknow and other provincial capitals, is 
 not immediately apparent. They are, certainly, sea- 
 ports and great centres of commerce. They have 
 been British possessions longer than the great cities 
 of the North. But Delhi was a flourishing city — the 
 capital of Hindostan — when Calcutta was but a 
 hamlet. Delhi and many another city northwards 
 are still, regarded from the native point of view, of 
 much importance ; and it is somewhat of a paradox 
 to speak of these cities, with their many thousands 
 of inhabitants, their ancient palaces and mausoleums, 
 and their centuries of historical grandeur, as one 
 would of little Peddlington with its population of 
 three hundred, and no monumental work more 
 imposing than the village pump. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Looked at from the Anglo-Indian standpoint, 
 there is, however, some reason for this distinction. 
 The Anglo-Indian whose lines are cast in the capital 
 of the old Khalsa kingdom, finds that the resources 
 of Lahore are not equal to the supply of all he 
 requires. If he want a decently-made coat or 
 tolerably fitting boots, he must send to Calcutta for 
 them, and it is the same with many of his other 
 requirements. ' Writing to Calcutta for it' is as 
 much a matter of every-day life in Lahore, and 
 of as little consideration, as c sending up to town for 
 it 5 is to the resident of some country place in Kent 
 or Surrey; although sending for anything from 
 Lahore to Calcutta is much the same as sending for 
 it from Copenhagen to Southern Italy. So also does 
 Calcutta supply the Anglo-Indians of Delhi and 
 other large cities of the north ; and, as centres of 
 supply of coats, waistcoats, trousers, boots, and many 
 other articles of a peculiarly English character, 
 Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, may claim a dis- 
 tinctive character. 
 
 Practically there is nothing in the existence of the 
 Anglo-Indian analogous with the town and country 
 life of England. There is no ' season ' in any one of 
 the capitals, when it is the right thing to go up to 
 town. There are no town mansions opened for three 
 months and relegated to spiders, brown-holland, and 
 a housekeeper for the rest of the year. The people 
 who are of the town seldom leave it ; the people of 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 149 
 
 the Moffussil stay in the Moffussil. Everybody has 
 employment of some sort that ties him down to his 
 place of residence, and only exceptionally does the 
 town-man take a few days' holiday in the Moffussil, 
 or the Moffussil man misuse a vacation by a shopping 
 expedition to the town. 
 
 Neither is there anything in the life of the Anglo- 
 Indian that fully represents the sea-side pleasures in 
 which some of the nations of Europe delight. There is 
 no Brighton or Biarritz, there is notevenaRamsgate 
 or Margate, at which the Anglo-Indian can disport 
 himself. Bombay and Madras are upon the sea and 
 derive some slight advantage from the sea breeze ; 
 but sea-bathing is hardly practicable where sunstroke 
 menaces from above and sharks below ; and, in point 
 of fact, the propinquity of the sea in India altogether 
 fails as an attraction. Only in the hi?.l stations of 
 India is there any affinity to Brighton, and these more 
 closely resemble Wiesbaden or some such inland place 
 where, in the season, idlers congregate. At Simla, 
 Mussoorie, Darjeeling, the Neilgherries, Poona, and 
 elsewhere, at a level of some few thousand feet 
 above the sea, there are houses which are let at an 
 exorbitant rate for the period between April 1 and 
 October 31, and leffctenantless during the cold weather 
 months. There are to be found ' grass widows ' 
 of all ages, whose husbands are left in the plains to 
 temporary single blessedness, bad dinners, and the 
 
150 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 dull routine of business. There, are many spinsters to 
 whom the hill campaign may secure partners. There, 
 are families of infantile incumbrances (the property 
 of the grass widows aforesaid) who in this bracing 
 atmosphere lay up a stock of health that will enable 
 them to weather through another year of India. 
 There, are many officers who have got their six 
 months' hot weather leave from their regiments. 
 There, are civilians who have saved up two or three 
 months' privilege leave to spend them iu the hills. 
 And there, are tradesmen who have brought their 
 stock-in-trade (possibly some thousand or fifteen 
 hundred miles) to sell at this summer fair. Always 
 excepting Simla, whereat the Governor- General and 
 Council, the Commander-in-Chief, and other official 
 magnates carry on their labours during the hot season 
 and rains, the hill stations are particularised by the 
 fact that all the Anglo-Indians, save the tradespeople, 
 who visit them have nothing to do but make the 
 most of a welcome holiday. Work (be it the work of 
 the cutcherry, the merchant's desk, or the parade 
 ground) has been left in the plains below, and here 
 all is to be pleasure. The opinions as to what is 
 pleasure vary as a matter of course. Quot homines 
 tot sententice. Mrs. Brown thinks it pleasure to 
 watch over her infant brood and see the roses spring- 
 ing in their cheeks. Jones, whose normal condition 
 of existence it is to spend eight hours a day pent up 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 151 
 
 in a room crowded by dusky and perspiring Indians, 
 finds it pleasure enough, to ride about the hills on his 
 tat, and get his lungs full of pure oxygen that is 
 innocent of all human taint ; and Eobinson of the 
 99th Plungers believes that he is enjoying himself 
 thoroughly in losing a few hundreds at unlimited loo. 
 There are men who are wild about cricket, and spend, 
 when they can, six days of every week in. the 
 immediate neighbourhood of the wickets. There are 
 others who are wild about dancing, and devote their 
 whole energies to the projection of balls and parties 
 dansantes. Some are given to pleasant pic-nics in a 
 quiet nook overhung by pine and cedar and rhododen- 
 dron, where the board is spread upon a carpet of violets 
 and fern, and the champagne cooled in an adjoining 
 cascade. Some get up sky races and try to create as 
 much excitement about Captain Bubble's Bluebottle 
 (aged fifteen, spavined, broken- winded, and only able 
 to pretend to gallop half a mile) as though that 
 ancient and afflicted animal were the equal of Mr. J. 
 Johnstone's Pretender. Some find labour rather 
 more severe than, though of a different character to, 
 that they left in the plains, in arranging amateur 
 theatricals. The racquet courts and card-tables 
 furnish occupation for a good number. And not a 
 few take gun and rod and sally forth into the interior, 
 there, in dense forests or close upon the hills of 
 eternal snow, to shoot the ibex, the Ovis ammon, the 
 
152 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 bear, the bison, and the barasingha (if they can), and 
 catch the trout and marseer that are only to be found, 
 in India, in those streams that come straight from 
 the regions of ice. Some confine themselves to one 
 or two of these means of killing time ; a few try the 
 round of all ; and some are satisfied to do nothing 
 more than realise fully the charms of the climate and 
 scenery about them. 
 
 For the ladies these hill stations have peculiar 
 attractions. There, out-door life is not denied them,, 
 and it is not constantly brought prominently to their 
 notice that they are the drones, while all the men 
 about them are working bees. In the hills the ladies 
 are as much working bees as the members of the 
 sterner sex. They cannot play cricket or enter the 
 racquet court or hunting ground upon equal terms 
 with the men ; but they can, and do, perform their 
 share of the toil evolved by pic-nics, fancy fairs, and 
 theatricals. They give their presence and counte- 
 nance to some of those amusements in which they 
 can render no physical aid. And they take upon 
 their shoulders (or feet) by far the greater portion of 
 the labours of the ball-room. They are no longer 
 tacitly reproached by the daily spectacle of men busy 
 with the prosaic work of bread- winning. In the hills 
 the men have nothing to do (affairs of pleasure 
 excepted), and the ladies give them every help in 
 doing it. 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 153 
 
 And here a word or two as to the social morality 
 of the Anglo-Indians of India in general and of the 
 hills in particular. It has not unfrequently been 
 represented that the morals of our countrymen in 
 India are at a very low ebb ; and, in some instances, 
 the descriptions of Anglo-Indian ethics would apply 
 far more accurately to the court of the merry 
 monarch — his glorious majesty King Charles II. — 
 than to any known civilised community of the present 
 era. The time-worn apophthegm, that the sky but not 
 the spirit changes when men go across the sea, holds 
 good for him who traverses the Indian Ocean, and, 
 taken all in all, the Anglo-Indian, morally considered, 
 cannot be said to differ very widely from his brother 
 in Great Britain. It is true that he is not always 
 such a good Churchman (it used to be said, that on 
 the voyage out to India religion was dropped at the 
 Cape of Good Hope). He does not, as a rule, go to 
 two sevices every Sunday, and dine on cold meat in 
 order that his servants may rest on the seventh day. 
 But there is some reason for these backslidings. It 
 is not easy for a man to become a steady church- 
 goer when he has no church to go to, and hundreds 
 (perhaps thousands) of the Anglo-Indians are not 
 within a day's journey of one. It is not encouraging 
 to attend a lay service and listen to a second-hand 
 sermon badly read by an erring brother who has 
 borrowed from us money that he will not repay, or 
 
154 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 refused to lend us money, or sold us an unsound 
 horse for a price that would have been a fancy one 
 had the animal been sound. It is not edifying to 
 hear Smith (whose word we know to be equal to his 
 bond — both being worthless !) talk to us about the 
 beauty of truth, and read a moral from the fate of 
 Ananias. Yet many Anglo-Indians must attend a 
 lay service or none, and not a few (i.e. many 
 hundreds) must, if they wish to have a service, per- 
 form the duties of priest and congregation at the 
 same time. As to his omision to rest his house- 
 hold on the Sunday, very little need be said. It 
 is almost an exaggeration of terms to say that 
 his servants labour on any day ; but supposing, for 
 the sake of argument, that they do, it would be 
 of little avail, even from the Churchman's point 
 of view, to give a day's rest for religious observ- 
 ance to people who would certainly not turn it 
 to any account recognisable by the Christian per- 
 suasion. 
 
 Conceding so much against the Anglo-Indian, and 
 having urged what we may in extenuation, we must 
 deny that there is any other grave charge to be 
 brought against him that may not be brought with 
 equal force against his English brother. Men of 
 position in India have now and again lost large sums 
 at cards or on the turf; but, then, men of position 
 are every day doing very much the same sort of thing 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 155 
 
 in England. And pushing the comparison further, 
 we find that in India gambling among Europeans is 
 kept within very moderate limits without any re- 
 pressive law ; while in England it cannot be restrained 
 in spite of severe, though incomplete, penal measures, 
 There are no bookmakers or betting agents in India, 
 and turf transactions are almost exclusively confined 
 to owners. In England the ardent turfite may, 
 without difficulty, be present at all the great events 
 of the year. Doncaster, Epsom, Ascot, or elsewhere, 
 may be reached by a rail journey of an hour or two, 
 and there are central points at which the fluctuations 
 of the betting market may be learnt at any moment. 
 In India the man who attempted to be present at all 
 the meetings between Meerut and Mysore would 
 have to spend five months in perpetual travelling ; 
 and, without being on the spot, he would know little 
 more about the starters, odds, and so forth, in any 
 race, than if it were run in another hemisphere. 
 The great racing event in India is the English 
 Derby. Derby lotteries are projected in most large 
 stations, and in many British regiments -> and more 
 general interest exists as to this one race run in the 
 old country, than is to be found for the whole racing 
 system of British India. When a meeting occurs in 
 his own station or within easy reach of him, the 
 Anglo-Indian may give his gold mohur subscription 
 and his attendance to it; but he has no warm 
 
156 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 feeling about the results, and very little inclination 
 to ruin himself by speculating upon them. 
 
 There is possibly more scandal in regard to the 
 relations of the two sexes, but this is only natural in 
 a country where conversation is always more objec- 
 tive than subjective, and where everybody knows more 
 or less of everybody else. There are places in 
 England — Bath and others — where people are 
 deeply interested in the affairs of their neighbours ; 
 but the most omniscient of the Bath inhabitants does 
 not know half as much about the majority of his 
 fellow-citizens as is known by the Anglo-Indian 
 about everyone in his own sphere throughout India. 
 The amount of a man's monthly income, the maiden 
 name of his wife, and other domestic items are, in 
 India, matters of public intelligence. Brown at 
 Peshawur has never seen Smith of Diamond Harbour 
 in his life, but he knows (i.e. he has been told) 
 that Smith married Miss De Souza, a young lady 
 with Indo-Portuguese blood in her veins, and that 
 the happy couple are struggling through life upon 
 300 rupees a month. On the other hand Smith 
 knows (after a similar fashion) that Brown jilted 
 Miss Bundobust, the daughter of a deputy collector, 
 and is likely to be driven by Calcutta tradesmen to 
 the disastrous step of withdrawing his name from the 
 list of lieutenants of H. M's onety-onth. There are 
 men in India who watch the words and actions of 
 
IN" THE MOFFUSSIL. 157 
 
 their acquaintances as anxiously as did Bos well in 
 the case of Dr. Johnson ; and if ever a second great 
 lexicographer should appear and select the British 
 Empire in India for his appearance, there will be 
 found a dozen men all competent to act as his bio- 
 grapher — all fully acquainted with every word and 
 action, however trivial, that may have marked his 
 career. 
 
 In the pre-inutiny time, and while Haileybury yet 
 flourished, it was intelligible enough that Anglo- 
 Indians of the upper ten should know a good deal 
 of each other. At that time appointments in the 
 Indian Civil Service and native army went by favour. 
 Nepotism flaunted itself before the world without a 
 blush ; and the patronage possessed by the oligarchy 
 that ruled over the brightest jewel of the British 
 crown was exercised primarily on behalf of the sons, 
 nephews, cousins, second-cousins, and other relatives 
 of a certain Anglo-Indian clique. At that period 
 the government and administration of India were, to 
 a great extent, in the hands of a happy family of 
 relations by blood or marriage. Open competition 
 has materially altered the condition of affairs so far. 
 The Civil Service list is no longer mainly comprised 
 of some dozen or twenty names. Relatives are 
 fewer. But a considerable amount of interest still 
 survives in the breasts of most of the Anglo-Indian 
 community as to the business of others. This being 
 
J 
 
 158 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 so, scandal does occasionally find its way into Anglo- 
 Indian gossip. Captain A.'s attentions to Mrs. Z. 
 may opportunely revivify a moribund conversation, 
 and speculation as to whether Mr. B. has proposed 
 to or been refused (jawauVd) by Miss Y. may rescue 
 a loquacious party from the abject condition of 
 taciturnity. But ordinarily these breathings of 
 scandal are but empty air, not meant to imply as much 
 as might at first appear to be intended, and without 
 any solid foundation in fact. The Anglo-Indian 
 community contributes but little support to the 
 Court of Divorce ; and the Anglo-Indian matron is 
 as much a model of all the domestic virtues as any 
 woman under the sun. 
 
 Having been led to make a slight detour, we will 
 now return to the Moffussil. Time was, and that at 
 no very remote period, when to go into the Moffussil 
 from any of the three great capitals implied a tedious 
 journey by steamer, palanquin, or jpalhee-gharee. At 
 that period (and we are speaking now of less than 
 twenty years ago) there were many Anglo-Indians in 
 Calcutta who had, during several years' residence, 
 never gone above a dozen miles into the interior. 
 On either bank of the Hooghly, from a point clear of 
 the shipping up to Barrackpore (twelve miles from 
 Calcutta by road), country houses stand within large 
 parks that slope down to the comparatively clear 
 stream. To these retreats the Calcutta merchants, 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 159 
 
 civilians, and others betook themselves on Sundays 
 and holidays, bnt to many Calcutta magnates Bar- 
 rackpore was the Ultima Thule, and beyond was an 
 unexplored Moffussil and mystery, which they were 
 content to leave uninvaded. 
 
 And when the miseries of a palkee dawk (or jour- 
 ney in a palanquin) are realised, it is not to be 
 wondered at that the Calcutta man did not un- 
 hesitatingly volunteer to undergo them. Let us try 
 and describe them. Supposing that we have to 
 travel in a palanquin a distance of forty miles, we 
 may calculate that the time occupied in the perform- 
 ance will be about twelve hours. Three miles an 
 hour is all that can be looked for with any degree of 
 certainty ; but, being sanguine, we estimate the pace 
 at 3J miles, and arrange to start accordingly. As it 
 is not desirable (it may be dangerous) to allow the 
 sun to get up very high in the heavens before our 
 journey is completed, we have to start betimes, or, in 
 other words, we have to hurry over our dinner and 
 commit ourselves to several hours' shaking before the 
 process of digestion has well commenced. Wishing 
 to start at eight, we order our palanqnin to be brought 
 at five, and it arrives at nine. Clad in an apology for 
 a night costume, that will admit of our getting out of 
 our conveyance on any emergency, we pack ourselves 
 into the oblong box that is to be both bed and 
 vehicle. The dimensions of this box are interesting 
 
160 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 to every traveller, and peculiarly so to a traveller 
 who stands over six feet in his stockings. The 
 palanquin is 5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. in length, 2 ft. 6 in. 
 to 3 ft. in breadth, 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. in height ; and 
 cannot be said to be roomy even for a man of 
 ordinary girth or stature. But, such as it is, we 
 squeeze into it and try to settle ourselves in the bed 
 our bearer has made for us therein. Our smaller 
 properties, dressing-case, cheroot box, &c, are placed 
 upon a shelf which overhangs our feet and, probably, 
 during the night comes down upon us, and our heavy 
 baggage is made over to a banghy wallah, who carries 
 it slung to a pole upon his shoulders. Being packed 
 up and ready to start, our carriers (bearers, Jcahars, 
 or whatever they may be called) are summoned to lift 
 us and bear us away. But there is a difficulty — half 
 of them are absent taking a last pull at the hookah 
 or buying parched grain to carry with them, and the 
 other half go in search of them. Eventually they 
 are collected, and off we are borne upon the shoul- 
 ders of four men, with a reserve of four who will take 
 turn and turn at carrying us the stage of ten miles, 
 and two other attendants, one (the banghy wallah 
 aforesaid) carrying our luggage, and the other (a 
 mussalchee) to light our way with a flaring, smoking, 
 and stinking oil-fed torch or mussal. Being in mo- 
 tion, we are subjected to such jolting as tries every 
 portion of our anatomy, and this rocking process is 
 accompanied by a lullaby in the shape of a mono- 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 161 
 
 tonous chant, with which our carriers beguile the 
 tedium of their labours. This chaunt may consist 
 only of grunts, ' hoo,' e ha,' ' hoo,' ' ha,' uttered with 
 a regularity of recurrence that is distracting ; or it 
 may embrace some dismally facetious remarks upon 
 the respective weights of male and female travellers. 
 In any case it is annoying enough to the sensitive 
 ear, and, protracted over twelve hours, makes night 
 hideous. But in spite of noise and shaking, in spite 
 of the fact that the mussal is invariably carried so 
 that we get the full benefit of the glare and smell, 
 we may doze off. At the ninth mile we may be in a 
 fitful slumber, and happily oblivious of our position ; 
 but we are soon to be reminded of our situation. At 
 the tenth mile the bearers are changed, and the whole 
 set are clamorous for bucsheesh, and will not be 
 silenced until we have woke up and given what they 
 demand. The three remaining stages are but repeti- 
 tions of the first, and we arrive at the end of our 
 journey with aching bones, feverish skin, and several 
 hours' arrears of sleep to make good. This is a 
 palkee dawk under the most favourable conditions. 
 What it is on a wet night, when the rain soaks 
 through the roof, when the bearers fall, when the 
 mussal goes out and leaves us in Stygian darkness, 
 and when the bearers put us down and leave us to 
 ourselves; or what it is when the sun heats the 
 
 M 
 
162 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 interior of the vehicle almost beyond endurance, 
 must be left to the imagination. 
 
 Travelling in a pallcee-gharee is slightly less un- 
 comfortable, but this mode of progression is only 
 possible upon metalled roads. The jpalkee-gharee is a 
 large palanquin upon four wheels, and there is almost 
 room in it for two inside passengers. But the horses 
 that draw them are miserable jades, that scarcely 
 ever survive six months of the hard life that cruel 
 fate condemns them to endure. Unbroken tats from 
 villages, or too much broken carriage horses — horses 
 that are broken- winded, and spavined, and glandered, 
 are made to go until they drop. At some seasons 
 these wretched animals are on the road — dragging a 
 carriage the six-mile stage, and walking back to 
 their starting-point, to be put into another carriage 
 immediately — for nearly twenty-four hours at a 
 stretch ; and the mild Hindoo or gentle Mahommedan 
 coachman will resort to any mild or gentle expedient 
 — such as lighting a fire under the animal — to make 
 the weary, worn-out beast put his shoulder to the 
 collar. Not unnaturally this system entails some 
 discomfort upon travellers. The object of every fresh 
 (?) horse put into the shafts is to lie down in them, 
 or do anything but go forward on the six-mile jour- 
 ney before him. There is much jibbing at every 
 change, many halts during a stage, and the six miles 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 163 
 
 may be ingloriously performed at a pace consider- 
 ably slower than an ordinary walk. 
 
 Eailways have, to a very great extent, driven palan- 
 quins and pallcee-gharees off the road, but it will be 
 many years ere they do so entirely ; and twenty years 
 ago the man who went from Calcutta to Peshawur 
 spent the best part of a month plodding on, day after 
 day, in one or other of these weary oblong boxes. 
 
 Before dismissing the subject of palanquin tra- 
 velling, a word is due to the palkee bearers. Of small 
 stature and little muscular development, these men 
 go through an amount of exertion that is positively 
 astounding. To four stalwart Europeans it would 
 appear a sufficiently laborious enterprise to carry a 
 loaded palanquin two or three miles, or without any 
 load to walk thirty. But eight natives will, on a 
 push, carry one twenty or thirty miles ; and sixteen 
 will undertake this arduous duty for a distance of 
 forty or fifty miles. 
 
 But now we will suppose that we have reached the 
 Moffussil. There is a wide field before us for choos- 
 ing what manner of life our Moffussil existence shall 
 be, and we will proceed to see how, under varying 
 conditions, the Anglo-Indians generally exist out of 
 the three great capitals. As first in degree, we will 
 commence with the large station where several 
 regiments are cantoned. Such a station may be the 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 capital of a province, in which case there will be 
 found in the civil lines a large staff of government 
 officials, heads of departments, and the personnel of 
 many central offices, in addition to the ordinary 
 district or divisional civil body ; and there will be 
 also a large community of banking agents, tradesmen 
 and other non-officials. In such a station there are 
 generally one or two club-houses, a theatre or two 
 (opened occasionally), two or three banks, and a 
 number of rival shops which never allow competition 
 to go the length of reducing prices to anything like 
 English rates. There may also be one or two ice- 
 machines that are engaged to make ice during the 
 hot weather and rains, but fail most miserably at the 
 hottest season. And lastly (they should have come 
 first), there are churches for several denominations of 
 Christians. 
 
 In a civil station that is also a military canton- 
 ment, it not unfrequently happens that Anglo-Indian 
 society is divided into three classes — the military, 
 the official civil, and the non-official civil — the isola- 
 tion of each body being very complete. Within 
 cantonments the general, or brigadier, or senior 
 colonel, reigns supreme over a society which may 
 include the officers of two or three British regiments 
 (foot and cavalry), some batteries of artillery, an 
 irregular cavalry corps, a couple of native foot 
 regiments, and his own staff. In the civil lines the 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. ' 165 
 
 lieutenant-governor, or chief commissioner, or 
 commissioner, leads a small world, which comprises, 
 as a matter of course, all covenanted civilians, all 
 military officers in civil employ, and some few others 
 who are admitted to this select circle on sufferance. 
 And beyond the pale of this civil coterie is a lower 
 world, wherein move all those who think they ought 
 to be in a higher position but cannot get there. 
 But very frequently the military and civil elements 
 combine, and in all cases there is an occasional show 
 of combination. 
 
 In a station of this description the idea of country 
 life is only feebly realised. The life is essentially 
 that of a town. In the morning men betake them- 
 selves to the club, and read the papers, or play 
 billiards. During the day there are official duties for 
 the civilians. In the afternoon men collect together 
 at the racquet courts, or cricket-field, or club. About 
 sunset the world (including all strata of the social 
 body) drives or rides up and down the mall, or goes 
 to hear the band. And in the evening there are mess 
 dinners, club dinners, burrahhanahs at private houses, 
 amateur theatricals, or some social gathering, as an 
 occasional relief to the monotony of every-day exis- 
 tence. It is, in fact, very much the life of Calcutta 
 society, with a good deal more spirit and a trifle more 
 of sociability infused into it. 
 
 The presence in a station of a large body of young 
 
166 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 men with plenty of time on their hands, necessarily 
 
 tends to the development of means of entertainment. 
 
 For amateur theatricals the Moffussil is mainly 
 
 dependent npon the military body, and many stations, 
 
 such as that we have described, can boast a corps 
 
 dramatique of colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, 
 
 ensigns, and, perhaps, one or two civilians equal to 
 
 the representation of small comedies, burlesque and 
 
 farce; while the men of the European regiments 
 
 organise companies that delight in melodrama, and 
 
 sometimes soar as high as Shakespeare. The working 
 
 men of these Thespian bands have no slight labour to 
 
 bear upon their shoulders. The unfortunate who has 
 
 dabbled a little in water colours is made to cover 
 
 hundreds of square yards of canvas with landscape 
 
 and useful interiors, and if the result fall short of the 
 
 efforts of Grieve and Beverley, it is not because 
 
 exertion or paint have been spared. Then there are 
 
 the difficulties of management. If ladies are to take 
 
 a part in the performance (and they frequently do), 
 
 much persuasive eloquence has to be exerted to 
 
 induce them to do what they are wanted to do, instead 
 
 of what they want to do themselves. If the female 
 
 characters are to be represented by males, young 
 
 Ensign Fipps and the youthful Cornet Overalls have 
 
 to be cajoled to shave off an incipient moustache, and 
 
 bullied to make them sit down without sending their 
 
 crinolines up in the air like ill regulated balloons. 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 167 
 
 Then most of the members of the company are 
 possessed of the ideas that rehearsals are of no 
 importance, that punctuality in attending them is an 
 undesirable virtue, and that it is of no earthly use to 
 know anything about their parts until the evening of 
 the performance. And, lastly, all the stage arrange- 
 ments (including the working of the scenery), are 
 generally left unconsidered until an hour or two 
 before the house opens. But very creditable per- 
 formances result in spite of the difficulties that 
 beset the manager and company, and a crowded 
 house of 250 or 300 is often collected to witness them. 
 Sometimes a full house is secured by a little touting. 
 The ' School for Scandal ' is to be played next week ; 
 the local journal has published the fact ; bills have 
 been left at the houses of the monde and posted in 
 the public places; and everybody knows that this 
 great event immediately impends. But the members 
 of the company are not satisfied with this system of 
 advertisement. Lady Teazle orders her carriage and 
 drives round to all her acquaintances to induce them 
 to order tickets. Sir Peter goes off in his buggy on 
 a similar mission. Charles Surface waylays people at 
 the band stand, and forces the theatre upon them. 
 And the moral Joseph, buttonholing his friends at 
 the church door, points out that they had better get 
 places the first thing to morrow, or they won't be in 
 time. 
 
168 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Now turn we to the smaller station, whereat are 
 the ordinary civil staff of divisional head-quarters, or 
 a district, and perhaps the wing of a British regiment 
 or a native corps. In the regulation provinces 
 (Bengal and the North West provinces), the princi- 
 pal station of a division (or cluster of districts) has a 
 civil force, comprising a commissioner, a judge, a 
 collector and magistrate, a joint magistrate, a 
 district superintendent of police, one or two assistant 
 magistrates, one or two deputy collectors, one or 
 two assistant police officers, a principal Sudder 
 Ameen or judge, and a subordinate judge or moon- 
 siff. Of these the police officers are either military 
 men or uncovenanted European civilians ; the deputy 
 collectors and chief native judge are uncovenanted 
 civilians, European or native ; and the moonsiff is a 
 native uncovenanted civilian invariably ; the remain- 
 der are covenanted civilians. In addition to these 
 members of the administration and executive, there 
 are a doctor and possibly a chaplain, and officers of 
 the public-works, or survey, or opium, or some other 
 special department. 
 
 The civil staff of a regulation district is, with the 
 exception of the commissioner, the same, but it is 
 less probable that it will boast of a chaplain or stray 
 officials of endemic departments. 
 
 The civil staff of a non-regulation district consists 
 of a deputy commissioner (who is collector, magis- 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 169 
 
 trate, and, up to a certain point, judge combined), a 
 couple of assistant commissioners, one or two extra 
 assistants, a district superintendent of police, and an 
 assistant deputy superintendent. None of these 
 appointments are held exclusively by covenanted 
 civilians. The deputy and assistant commissioners 
 may be civilians covenanted, uncovenanted, or mili- 
 tary. The extra assistants are unexceptionally 
 uncovenanted (European, Eurasian or native), and 
 the police officers are military or uncovenanted, as in 
 the regulation provinces. Here there is only a 
 remote probability of finding a chaplain, and less 
 chance of finding stray officials of exceptional depart- 
 ments. And here it not unfrequently occurs that 
 the doctor is represented by some native disciple of 
 iEsculapius whose ideas about the respective proper- 
 ties of arsenic and Epsom salts are of a dangerously 
 vague character. At the head- quarters of a non- 
 regulation division there is a commissioner who is 
 judge and commissioner in one; and otherwise 
 Anglo-Indian society here is much the same as at 
 the head-quarters of a regulation division. 
 
 In these smaller stations the non-official world is 
 but a very feeble social element. There may be 
 some few Anglo-Indians — indigo-planters, zemindars, 
 court-pleaders, or commercial people — and there may 
 be none. There are a few shops for the sale of 
 European goods — wines, spirits, beer, antiquated 
 
170 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 oilmen's stores, salad oil bottled for many years like 
 crusty old port, hermetically sealed fish that have 
 been out of their native element for a lustrum or 
 more, and a general assortment of articles of sad- 
 dlery, hardware, ironmongery, &c, that may be some 
 day rescued from the dust of ages by an adventurous 
 purchaser ; but these shops are generally kept by a 
 native or a Jew. Here the club exists in the shape 
 of a coffee-shop, at which the men assemble betimes 
 in the morning to talk shop, read the papers, and 
 drink tea or coffee — or does not exist at all. Here 
 the church may be the magistrate's court, and the 
 theatre the commissioner's dining-room. And it is 
 a matter for rejoicing if here there be found a 
 racquet court or swimming-bath. 
 
 In these smaller stations there is often a great 
 deal of sociability among those who are recognised 
 as being of society. Those of the community who 
 are of the monde are driven by the exigencies of their 
 position to combine for the common weal. In the 
 absence of professional butchers and a local meat 
 market the world has to assume the character of 
 amateur butchers and supply its own requirements. 
 The mutton club is an institution in nearly every 
 small station ; one member, like Norval's father, feeds 
 the flock, and four or five members share the slaugh- 
 tered animals ; hind quarters, fore quarters and 
 saddles being distributed with fair alternation — save 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 171 
 
 when a station dinner involves a departure from the 
 ordinary sequence of joints. During the hot weather, 
 there is the ice club — ice, wrapped in blankets, being 
 brought many miles by coolies, and as much of it 
 as does not melt divided among the members. Then 
 there is the book club, an institution that frequently 
 indulges in a short literary debauch, ordering every 
 new book that comes out — and then undergoes a pro- 
 tracted literary Ramadan, during which subscribers 
 are compelled to satisfy their craving for letters by 
 absorbing the pages of the cheap monthlies or read- 
 ing over again what they have read before. And 
 there may be cheese clubs, bread clubs, draught beer 
 clubs, and other similar institutions of combination. 
 
 Nor does this system end with the application ot 
 private resources to the general welfare through the 
 medium of clubs. If Mrs. A. wants to give a ball, 
 she thinks nothing of asking for the use of Mrs. B.'s 
 house, which is the one in the station best adapted 
 to the purpose, or the loan of Mr. C.'s dinner-service, 
 or Mrs. D.'s epergne for the furnishing of her supper 
 table. So, one of Mrs. E.'s carriage-horses being 
 lame, she will indent upon the stable of a neighbour 
 to fill the vacancy in the shafts of her carriage. 
 And, in fact, everybody, within certain limits, looks 
 upon the property of society generally as his own 
 temporarily, when occasion requires him to use it. 
 
 This is all very pleasant for those who are of the 
 
172 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 monde, but the position, in a small station, of those 
 who are out of it, or who only hold an uncertain 
 status on its outskirts, is by no means so agreeable. 
 Mr. Paikast, the deputy collector, is in the unenviable 
 position of hanging suspended, like a social Maho- 
 met's coffin, somewhere between that aristocracy of 
 which the judge is the head, and a commonalty that 
 has no head at all. No one of the upper ten (upper 
 four or five more correctly) would, on the occasion of 
 a station ball, use Mr. Paikast's house if it were 
 large enough (which it is not), or borrow his epergne, 
 supposing the improbability of his having one. If 
 fortune favour him, he may obtain a position in 
 some or all of the station clubs. He may divide a 
 sheep with the judge, the collector, and joint magis- 
 trate ; he may pore over those pages of the cheap 
 magazines that have been skimmed by his official 
 superiors, and he may enjoy other corporate privi- 
 leges. He may be invited to station dances, or 
 unexclusive dinner-parties, as a matter of form ; but 
 though joining in these festivities, he is but a passive 
 actor in them. He goes to the ball to find that 
 every lady's programme is a sealed book to him. At 
 the dinner he is driven by the rules of precedence to 
 enter the dining-room last, and probably alone, and 
 the banquet is for him about as lively as the en- 
 tertainment of cake and wine provided for mourners 
 at a funeral. Those who are of ' society ' have 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 173 
 
 pleasant gatherings where form and Mr. Paikast 
 are both absent — cheerful early-morning breakfasts 
 (chota hazrees) in the verandah of the collector's 
 bungalow, evening croquet meetings in the judge's 
 compound (or grounds about a house, the term com- 
 pound being derived from the Portuguese campana), 
 tiffins, small dinners, riding-parties, paper hunts, 
 shikar parties, and so forth, of which he may hear, 
 but in which he is not asked to join. His is, indu- 
 bitably, an uncomfortable position. He may not 
 become one with the better class, and he cannot 
 very well associate with the Jew shopkeeper or 
 Eurasian clerks. He cannot, any more than other 
 Anglo-Indians, make any social capital out of the 
 native aristocracy ; and he may be, and often is, 
 the sole representative of his small sphere. 
 
 We have spoken of balls as though the internal 
 resources of these small stations were equal to fes- 
 tivities on a large scale, and it must be explained that, 
 on occasion, several adjoining stations unite in some 
 great effort for general entertainment. When some 
 Hindoo or Mahommedan festival releases civilians 
 from their labours in cutcherry, or the Christmas 
 week or other English holiday affords the opportunity, 
 a small station bursts out in the direction of general 
 hospitality and merry-making, and every desirable 
 person, male and female, is summoned from every 
 point within a day's journey. Marvellous are the 
 
174 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 makeshifts to find accomodation for the visitors ; 
 verandahs are tnrned into bed-rooms for bachelors, 
 who are supposed to be superior to the trials of rheu- 
 matism and catarrh ; tents, erected near the houses, 
 are furnished as domitories for others who cannot be 
 put up within doors, and all the dwelling-places of 
 the world become, for the time being, so many hos- 
 telries. If a dance be on the tapis, great are the 
 exertions to enlist, from far and near, the assistance 
 of proficients in waltz and gallop. To secure the 
 attendance of the agile Mrs. Hoppington, the gentle- 
 men of a saltatory turn will send all their horses out 
 upon the road to bring her carriage in some forty or 
 fifty miles (' laying a dawk ' this is called) ; and to 
 induce Captain Saraband to put in an appearance, 
 the dancing ladies will do anything, from writing 
 to the Commander-in-Chief to foregoing a new 
 bonnet. In the cold season the society collected 
 may be entertained in a variety of ways. Sky 
 races, pic-nics, and cricket-matches keep the merry- 
 makers employed during the day; and the small 
 station, for a time, has a very pleasant carnival in 
 full swing. 
 
 And it is well that this should be so, for were it 
 otherwise the Anglo-Indians of small stations would, 
 in many instances, become creatures of one idea, 
 wholly unfit to hold their own in the wider streams 
 of society. As it is, the intercommunication of ideas 
 is singularly restricted. ' Shop ' is the only theme 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 175 
 
 that possesses a lasting interest. A dispute as to the 
 construction of some section of the Code of Civil Pro- 
 cedure, or an argument as to whether Ram Chunder 
 Ghose should have been committed to the sessions 
 for lurking house trespass with intent to steal, or con- 
 victed by the magistrate of simple theft, will keep a 
 party of men conversationally employed where all the 
 affairs of Europe and America would fail to excite 
 any interest. The wreck of matter and the fall of 
 worlds are to the zealous magistrate trifles light as 
 air compared with the reversal of one of his decisions 
 and the fall of the roof of his jail. And official con- 
 versation is often interlarded by technical terms in 
 the vernacular of Hindostan, which might just as well 
 be expressed in English had not custom made the 
 native terms more familiar. Ex. gr. Brown, the 
 collector, loquitur : ' Well, you know, Earn Bux got 
 the izara (farm) of Bugglinuggur from the zemindar 
 (landlord) at a jumma (rental) of 2,000 rupees, paying 
 5,000 rupees peshghee (premium) and a nuzzur (gift) 
 of 500 rupees ; but when he came to settle with the 
 ryots (cultivators) half of them put in claims to hold 
 their lands lahhraj (rent free), or at a low jumma 
 upon istumrare pottas (leases in perpetuity), and he 
 had to put them into court. Then the rubbee and 
 hhurreef (cold weather and rain crops) were got in 
 before he could collect his rents, and he had to make 
 any bundobust (settlement) he could to carry on.' 
 These terms find their way into official reports, and 
 
176 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 these papers, being further embellished by sundry 
 Latin and French phrases, are often very polyglot 
 indeed in their character. 
 
 Apropos of reports, we may observe that the 
 Anglo-Indian official is constantly employed in the 
 preparation of a report upon something or other. 
 There are those departmental reports, administrative, 
 judicial, revenue and executive, that recur at fixed 
 periods; and there are those which are called into 
 existence upon exceptional occasions. The latter 
 class constitutes the great bulk of these public papers, 
 for the Indian civilian is called upon to report any- 
 thing and everything, however trivial the subject 
 may be, or however little he may know about it. 
 Famines, inundations, insufficient falls of rain, the 
 prevalence of epidemics ; the feelings of the natives 
 towards British rule ; the condition and progress of 
 trade, arts, and manufacture ; the nature of certain 
 soils, irrigation, cultivation, or any other matter, may 
 have to be reported upon, and a certain minimum 
 number of sheets of foolscap occupied by it, whether 
 the writer knows anything about it or not. It is not 
 very long since, in a certain province, all the collec- 
 tors of districts upon the Ganges were called upon to 
 report upon the Gangetic dolphin, a creature of 
 which many of them knew as much or as little as 
 they did of .the habits of the plesiosaurus. Some- 
 thing very closely approaching universal knowledge 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 177 
 
 is required to carry the Indian civilian through these 
 reporting duties in a satisfactory manner ; but this 
 fact does not prevent the sciolist from acquitting 
 himself in the legitimate number of paragraphs upon 
 political economy, meteorology, sanitation, natural 
 history, geology, or any other subject. Injustice to the 
 Indian civilian, however, it must be stated that, in 
 most cases, he does possess some amount of practical 
 knowledge upon many subjects. He may not be 
 intimately acquainted with the nature of the Gangetic 
 dolphin ; but, as a district officer, he is compelled to 
 acquire some information upon many more important 
 matters to which we have alluded. Meteorological 
 observations and the nature of agriculture are forced 
 upon him by his official duties. Having charge of 
 the district roads he is, in some degree, a civil 
 engineer. He is generally doctor enough to cure the 
 natives about him of fever, or other ordinary ailments 
 to which Hindoo flesh is peculiarly heir, and, while 
 on tour, his medicine chest is resorted to as the public 
 dispensary. Six to ten hours a day spent in cut- 
 cherry may not leave him much time to acquire 
 scientific lore from books ; the many hours spent in 
 the saddle when he visits different parts of his terri- 
 tory do not tend to literary advancement ; but, with 
 his eyes open and his wits about him, he picks up a 
 great deal of useful knowledge nevertheless. 
 
 We have hitherto spoken of the Moffussil life of 
 
 H 
 
178 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 stations, but there are many Anglo -Indians who for 
 some portion of, or, perhaps, their whole career live iso- 
 lated from all their kind. Indigo planters, zemindars, 
 and other European non-officials ; civilians in charge of 
 subdivisions ; engineers in charge of works ; and road 
 overseers are all, permanently or temporarily, so many 
 Selkirks living, as far as Europeans are concerned, 
 alone, and to a certain extent monarchs of all they 
 survey. For the official this condition of things is 
 not so eminently agreeable. He does not anticipate 
 a long stay in the out-post of civilisation, and he 
 takes no steps to settle down in it. But the non- 
 official probably feels that here the better part of his 
 existence is to be spent, and he does his best to make 
 his position as comfortable as possible. The official 
 bird of passage argues that it is no use planting trees 
 of which his successors will reap all the fruits, or 
 erecting poultry-houses for the accomodation of his 
 successor's fowls. The man who is settled has his 
 garden and home farm to afford him occupation and 
 provide his table ; his Lares and Penates are erected 
 en permanence ; and he sees in every improvement 
 effected in his domain a future advantage to himself. 
 Here, digressing for a few moments, it may be 
 observed that in respect of settling down in the 
 country, the Anglo-Indian of the present differs 
 widely from him of twenty or thirty years ago. Then 
 the idea of running home to England did not suggest 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 179 
 
 itself every few years. Before Lieutenant Wagner's 
 scheme of an overland route had led to practical 
 results, it was not possible to reach England in less 
 than three or four months, and of a year's leave 
 devoted to a trip to England the greater part 
 would have been spent upon the sea : and after 
 the overland route was a fait accompli, the rules 
 of the services arbitrarily restricted the servants 
 of the East India Company from enjoying much 
 of their leave westward of the Cape of Good Hope. 
 Then, again, the civilian or officer bound to John 
 Company at that period was less tempted than 
 he now is to go home by the desire to renew family 
 ties. He may have had relations in England, but 
 the chances were that he had as large a family 
 circle in India, and it was a mockery of terms 
 to talk about keeping up home associations more 
 in one country than in the other. Then there 
 were civilians who had lived thirty or forty years in 
 India without any interval spent in England, and 
 military men and non-officials similarly settled down 
 to give the best portion of their days to the land of 
 their adoption. At the present time matters are very 
 different. The civilian who takes three months' 
 privilege leave may employ it in a run home and 
 have six weeks of his holiday in England. The 
 government servant is no longer debarred as he was 
 from spending his leave in Europe, and the Anglo- 
 
 N 2 
 
X. 
 
 180 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Indian has seldom any large circle of relatives to 
 make a home for him in India. Nearly everybody 
 (i.e. every Anglo-Indian) is possessed by the two 
 ideas that he will get leave to go home as often as 
 he can, and leave India for good as early as 
 possible. Even the Eurasian who is but slightly 
 indebted to England for blood, and whose ancestry 
 for several generations have been born, christened, 
 educated, married, and buried in India, talks 
 of England as his home and aspires to visit it. 
 And the Anglo-Indian who has spent ten years 
 without intermission in India considers himself a 
 victim. 
 
 Moffussil life, as it exists in the instance of an indigo- 
 planter, has many charms. At most factories there 
 is a good (numerically at all events) stud of horses ; 
 and for the better part of the year the planter's 
 duties consist solely in going the round of his cultiva- 
 tion. Eiding over many miles of ground a day, he 
 sees that ploughing, sowing, weeding, and cutting 
 are properly conducted, and enjoys healthy exercise 
 at the same time. During the manufacturing 
 season, and when advances are made to cultivators, 
 he has a little legitimate office work and is tied down 
 by his duties to the factory limits. He may also have 
 a little illegitimate office work as a self-constituted 
 judge and magistrate, or his duties as an honorary 
 magistrate by government appointment : in either of 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 181 
 
 which cases his bungalow will be resorted to by all 
 his native neighbours who are upon friendly terms 
 with him, and prefer speedy equity to dilatory law. 
 But otherwise he is free to spend his days in the 
 saddle or on the shikar ground ; and the interests of 
 the factory do not suffer if he occasionally takes a 
 week's run to the house of some neighbouring planter 
 or to some station in the vicinity. Among the planters 
 there is a considerable amount of sociability in spite 
 of their scattered society, and much of the hospitality 
 for which India generally was once remarkable. The 
 Anglo-Indian traveller who finds his way to an indigo 
 factory knows that he will there find bed, board and 
 welcome ; and in some districts he may ride or drive 
 his hundred miles, finding at each factory a change 
 of horses and liberal entertainment for himself. The 
 planters are the sole representatives in India of that 
 class in England by which game is preserved. The 
 jungles, the plains, the swamps, and the fields of 
 India are avowedly open to all sportsmen. No ' shoot- 
 ings ' of 2,000 or 3,000 acres are sold or held for the 
 exclusive enjoyment of the wealthy. No coverts are 
 jealously watched by gamekeepers, or stocked with 
 game hatched under maternal hens and reared in 
 hencoops. No boards worn the wayfarer or sports- 
 man off the ground as trespassers, or man-traps 
 threaten the unheeding pedestrian. The beasts of 
 the field and the fowls of the air are protected by no 
 
182 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 game-laws. 1 But by virtue of prescriptive right the 
 indigo-planter holds an exclusive title to some of the 
 shikar of his domain, and, having this, he does some- 
 thing in the direction of preserving — sees that the 
 wild pig is not molested out of season, retains cover 
 for the black partridge, and otherwise exerts himself 
 to keep up the stock of game on his estate. 
 
 In the good old times (and very indifferent were 
 the good old times generally) hospitality often ran riot 
 at the indigo factory as it did in other Anglo-Indian 
 houses of the period. Pleasant little parties of four 
 would sit down to dispose of the contents of a six- 
 dozen chest of beer during the evening. Festive 
 hosts would discard wine-glasses and tumblers as being 
 of inadequate capacity, and replace them with the 
 candle-shades taken from the wall lights. And there 
 was often warm emulation on the part of the guests 
 as to finishing the night under the table. Those 
 were the days when many men were unpleasantly 
 reminded of the situation of their liver, and when the 
 traditional nabob returning to England could be 
 recognised at once by his jaundiced complexion. 
 Now-a-days the Anglo-Indian, after twenty years 
 spent under a eastern sun, can hardly be distinguished 
 from the Englishman who has never been further 
 eastward than Temple Bar. 
 
 1 An effort is now being made to protect game by the operation of 
 the Arms License Act, and close seasons are being introduced. 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 183 
 
 One of the principal features of Moffussil life is 
 camping. To most civilians and to all the military 
 it occurs at some time, perhaps every cold weather, 
 to go under canvas and spend months in a tent. As 
 each annual relief comes out there is a move of many 
 regiments, and officers of regiments that are to 
 march forthwith offer their property for public sale 
 by circulating lists in the station ; or put their Lares 
 and Penates up to the hammer. Everything that is 
 not immediately required or cannot be easily carried, 
 from the mess billiard-table down to the bassinet of 
 the major's baby, is disposed of; and tents and camp 
 equipage rise in the market to a fabulous value, 
 which is disagreeably equalised by the deteriora- 
 tion of the value of all property to be sold. 
 Then, after the departing regiment has been enter- 
 tained by the rest of the community, the march is 
 commenced, and may last day after day (with the ex- 
 ception of Sundays) for the next couple of months. 
 So, when cholera breaks out in a military cantonment 
 there is an exodus from the station, and the troops 
 are for a time located under canvas upon one of the 
 pleasant spots (generally marked by four boundary 
 pillars, a well, and a small grave-yard) called ' cholera 
 encampments.' Camp life in this form is not particu- 
 larly enjoyable, for cholera generally asserts itself in 
 the hot weather or rains, when to be away from the 
 
184 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 punkah or tattie is agony, and when to be in tents 
 implies being condemned to heat intolerable and 
 insects innumerable. But, though it may involve 
 much discomfort, this movement of the troops is 
 eminently desirable. It brings the men upon a new 
 scene, introduces novelty into their mode of life, and 
 gives them other mental occupation than brooding 
 over the ravages of the epidemic that is among them ; 
 and this, as much as change of air, may be accredited 
 with the success that attends the use of cholera 
 encampments. 
 
 Except upon some unforeseen emergency, or when 
 affairs are singularly mismanaged, the movement of 
 European troops from station to station is made in 
 the cold season, and it is at that time that the 
 civilians start upon their annual tour. To the 
 Englishman whose ideas of life under canvas are 
 based upon a few hours' experience of a cricket 
 pavilion or flower-show marquee, the realities of 
 camp life in India must appear passing strange. 
 Loading his tents and camp furniture, his office 
 records, and the baggage of his followers, upon 
 elephants, camels, or carts, the civilian starts upon a 
 round that may extend over hundreds or thousands 
 of miles, and occupy one month or six. If he travel 
 in ordinary comfort he will have one tent in which 
 to sleep, and one to send on overnight, to be pitched 
 and ready for his reception when he finishes his 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 185 
 
 march in the morning ; but there are many degrees 
 of camp paraphernalia. There is the splendid en- 
 campment of the Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor, 
 with its durbar tent and double sets of public and 
 private tents, shamianahs, and servants' pals or 
 canvas -wigwams — with tents that are spacious, 
 luxuriously furnished, and provided with glazed 
 doors that exclude all dust and unwelcome wind. 
 There is the comfortable equipage of the magistrate, 
 with its two fair-sized tents, and wide-spreading 
 shamianah ; and there is the modest encampment of 
 the deputy collector, with its one single-walled hill 
 tent twelve feet square. 
 
 Under conditions of average comfort, camp life is 
 very enjoyable. The cold weather of Northern 
 India is characterised by a climate that is very little 
 short of perfection, and there is little uncertainty 
 as to the weather. Between October and March it 
 may rain half a dozen times, but even these excep- 
 tional bursts of wet weather are generally announced 
 by premonitory symptoms some day or two before- 
 hand ; and while the man who marches sees a new 
 landscape every time he shifts his ground, the sty- 
 above him is almost constantly the same deep and 
 unclouded blue. It is pleasant enough rising about 
 sunrise and, after the chota-hazree cup of tea, &c, 
 riding or driving ten to fourteen miles from the old 
 encampment to the new one — shooting a few snipe, 
 
186 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 quail, wild duck, or some other game by the way — 
 and arriving to find breakfast ready, and the office 
 table prepared in front of the tent for cutcherry work. 
 Wending his way from one camp to another, the 
 district-officer learns more of the people over whom 
 he is the immediate ruler, than can ever be acquired 
 in his court, to which each man comes with his one 
 grievance or story and not a word beyond. Here, 
 upon the road and in the villages, he may gain some 
 insight into native life and learn much that will 
 materially aid him in future decisions. Here he is, 
 as it were, a father to whom the people may pour out 
 some of their thoughts and troubles ; in his court he 
 is a stern, unbending judge, blind as Justice itself, 
 whom it is best, in native opinion, to propitiate by 
 oblations of perjury. And it not unfrequently 
 happens that in his camp march he is attended by an 
 irregular body of the people, all ready to hold con- 
 verse with the hakim, and all, it must be admitted, 
 anxious to turn the opportunity of his presence to 
 their own advantage. 
 
 Even the monotony of cutcherry duties is relieved 
 by this al fresco performance of them. Seated in 
 some mango grove in the , pleasant shade of the 
 over-hanging branches, or under a canvas awning, 
 the Government official performs his labours in a 
 pure atmosphere and to the accompaniment of the 
 western wind murmuring among the trees. No 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 187 
 
 white- washed wall shuts in his view; long avenues 
 of trees, casting fitful flecks of light and shade upon 
 the grass, . extend before him, and in the misty 
 distance is the village — a back ground that is pic- 
 turesque enough when not too closely approached. 
 
 But camp life has its disagreeable side. It is not 
 particularly enjoyable when it sets in wet for a day 
 or two, or when a storm threatens to take the dweller 
 in tents up in his canvas abode like an eccentric 
 aeronaut, or when the high winds of the early 
 springtime sweep clouds of dust into the tent 
 through every opening and crevice. It is not 
 pleasant to sit throughout the day in a tent that is 
 too dark to admit of any reading or writing without 
 a lamp, listening to the pitter-patter of the drops on 
 the canvas roof — watching the points where the rain 
 leaks through — and urging the khalassies (tent- 
 pitchers) and other retainers to throw up an embank- 
 ment round the tent, that will prevent the floor of the 
 interior becoming a waste of waters. It is not the 
 most agreeable thing in the world when, on a rainy 
 day, the tent becomes a sort of Noah's ark, and shiver- 
 ing natives and damp animals of many kinds — dogs, 
 goats, sheep, fowls, &c. — seek refuge in the verandah 
 between the walls of the tent from the floods without. 
 It is not pleasant to be awoke in the dead of night 
 by one of those hurricanes that come up so suddenly 
 and create such destruction in India ; to hear the 
 
188 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 crash of falling trees and branches around, and feel 
 that the canvas walls and roof, now flapping in the 
 wind like many loose shreds of cloth, may in a few 
 minntes be a confused heap, burying in its ruins the 
 unfortunate inhabitant. It is a disheartening pro- 
 ceeding, on such an occasion, attempting to raise 
 one's voice above the fury of the tempest in exhorting 
 unwilling camp-followers to hammer in the tent-pegs 
 that are yielding to the strain upon them ; and the 
 situation may be further improved by the impossi- 
 bility of procuring a light, and the consequent 
 necessity of going through this war of the elements 
 in murky darkness that is made only the more inky 
 by an occasional blinding flash of lightning ; or by 
 the fact that all one's horses have broken away from 
 their heel-ropes and are galloping about, wild with 
 fear and indifferent as to consequences, among tent- 
 ropes, carts, and other obstacles calculated to injure 
 them. Neither is camp life positively luxurious, 
 when clouds of dust eddy round the tent interior and 
 everything is covered by an earthy deposit of a 
 peculiarly gritty and uncomfortable character. 
 Camp life has its clouded as well as its bright side 
 undoubtedly, and, fortunately, the bright side is that 
 most frequently seen. 
 
 Pleasure as well as duty takes the Anglo-Indian 
 into camp. The subaltern has his small tent of 
 which he makes a home when, getting ten days' 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 189 
 
 leave in the drill season or a month or two during 
 the hot weather, he goes into the interior on a 
 shooting expedition. Other officers and many civil- 
 ians also employ their camp equipage for purposes of 
 shikar. And, malgre some few drawbacks in respect 
 of temperature, &c, tent life is more nearly allied to 
 perfect enjoyment when connected with shikar than 
 on any other occasion. 
 
 We have said that, in the absence of game laws 
 and a general system of preserving, sport in India 
 is legally open to all. But the conditions under 
 which certain beasts of the chase have to be pursued 
 exclude many from joining in some branches of 
 shikar. In Central and Western India, where the 
 tiger has to be, or can be, hunted down on foot, any 
 one with the requisite pluck and funds sufficient to 
 pay a few beaters may shoot that monarch of the 
 forest. But in the great tiger grounds of the eastern 
 provinces a stud of from ten to forty elephants is 
 necessary to drive the tiger from his lair, and a 
 similarly costly stud is often required in pig- 
 sticking. 
 
 The encampment of a tiger-shooting party (be the 
 mise en scene the morung of Bengal or the terai of 
 Oude or the north-west) is a stirring and picturesque 
 bit of life. Pitched in the shade of the lofty trees of 
 a primeval forest is the cluster of tents in which the 
 Anglo-Indian sportsmen sleep, breakfast and dine. 
 
190 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 Around the central point are cooking tents, servants' 
 pals, carts and other impedimenta ; and in the glades 
 about are open-air stables where many elephants, 
 horses and camels are tethered. It is true, that 
 the month is April or May, and that the ' merry, 
 merry sunshine' is better calculated to make the 
 head dizzy than the heart gay, but the sportsman 
 ignores the thermometer altogether and enjoys him- 
 self as thoroughly as though the temperature were 
 60° lower than it is. Eising at any hour between 5 
 a.m. and 8 a.m., he takes his breakfast in the mess 
 tent and prepares for the day's campaign. At noon 
 the tiger comes down from the forest to spend the 
 heat . of the day in swamps or open patches of cool 
 green grass, and as it is in his daily haunts that he 
 is to be sought, the hunt does not begin before twelve. 
 There may be a march of ten miles to reach the 
 ground, or the spot where a tiger has been marked 
 down may be close at hand, and elephants are pre- 
 pared accordingly. Then the howdah elephants are 
 brought round to the tents, and the howdahs are 
 fitted with the batteries of rifles and smooth bores, 
 ammunition, bottles of cold tea or something stronger, 
 cheroot boxes and other necessaries, that include 
 sometimes an umbrella and a blanket (the blanket 
 being taken to throw over the head should an incau- 
 tious elephant break up a hive of wild bees and send 
 the angry swarm round the heads of its riders). And 
 
IN THE MOFFUiSSlL. 191 
 
 then the sportsmen mount and are jogged off upon 
 an expedition that will be terminated some time after 
 dark. Once afield, the party submits to very strict 
 discipline, and one leader directs the movements of 
 the band. When a tiger is supposed to be near at 
 hand this commander will signal that there is to be 
 no general firing, and while that order remains unre- 
 voked, deer of many kinds (sambhur, bara-singha, 
 fallow-deer and hog-deer) wild pigs, peafowl, florican, 
 black partridge, &c, crash away in the grass below, 
 or rise in the air above, without having their flight 
 quickened or arrested by a shot. When general 
 firing is permitted, there is often a constant fusillade, 
 closely resembling file-firing on parade, and every 
 now and then some feathered or four-footed quarry 
 is picked up and padded on one of the elephants of 
 the line. But the real excitement commences when 
 (in solemn silence, as far as men are concerned), the 
 line of elephants forces its way through the long 
 dense grass that is supposed to hold a tiger. If it be 
 in a swamp, there is the additional excitement en- 
 gendered by the possibility of one's elephant sinking 
 in it and staying there ; and as at each step the bulky 
 animal goes deep in the treacherous bog — now sway- 
 ing low on one side, then on the other — it becomes a 
 matter of anxious consideration whether it will ever 
 get its feet out to advance another step or return. 
 Shaken from side to side of his howdah, and often 
 
192 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 with his view intercepted by the grass and reeds 
 rising above his head, the tiger- shooter stands in his 
 howdah, rifle in hand, prepared for that moment 
 when he may catch a glimpse of a yellow skin with 
 black bars upon it. He hears animals breaking 
 through the jungle close at hand, but though he can- 
 not see them, he knows from the style of their going 
 that they are not what he looks for. At last the 
 tiger is sighted (perhaps two or more are sighted at 
 the same time), and there are shouts of 6 bagh, bagh, 
 (tiger, tiger), from the natives, and shots from every 
 sportsman who has seen, or thinks he has seen it. 
 Then there are cries of ' lugga, lugga ' (hit, hit), from 
 the natives, who always say that an animal is hit 
 however little reason there may be for forming such 
 a conclusion ; and possibly a general scrimmage in 
 which the tiger is apparently omnipresent — now on 
 the head of one elephant, then on the tail of another 
 — until he lies hors de combat on the grass and snarls 
 his life away. 
 
 While the tiger is being padded (i.e. lashed upon 
 the pad of an elephant that does not carry a howdah), 
 the Anglo-Indians refresh themselves, and the con- 
 tents of the tiffin basket (carried on a pad-elephant 
 devoted to this purpose) are discussed, while an 
 animated argument may ensue as to the mode by 
 which the tiger came by his death. As the skin of 
 the animal is the especial trophy of him whose bullet 
 
IN THE MOPFUSSIL. 193 
 
 was the first to hit it, each sportsman possibly brings 
 himself to believe that his was the lucky shot, and 
 boldly asserts what he believes. ' I hit him with my 
 first barrel just above the shoulder, and my second 
 touched him in his hind leg ; ' e I know I hit him 
 because I saw him swerve as I fired,' and similar 
 remarks are current ; and the interior of the tiger 
 must be a rich lead mine if it contain all the bullets 
 that are said to have passed into it. But subsequent 
 investigation, when the tiger is skinned close to the 
 camp, proves that some four instead of forty bullets 
 have had their billet in the right place, and inquiry 
 conducted upon judicial principles and with all re- 
 gard to laws of evidence, frequently fails to clear up 
 the point as to the rightful claimant of the first 
 effective missile. 
 
 After a day spent in this manner upon an elephant 
 the sportsman returns to camp ready enough to tub 
 (i.e. have a mussuk or skin of water poured over him 
 by a bheestie), take a good pull at a tankard of cool 
 beer or claret cup, dine, and go to bed. He may, 
 perhaps, sit out a couple of hours after dinner talk- 
 ing over past sport or organising future movements 
 — or he may play a rubber of whist — but his day's 
 work has made sleep very acceptable, and at ten 
 o'clock there is a hush in the camp, only broken 
 occasionally by the trumpeting of a restless elephant 
 or the howling of some predacious jackal : and the 
 
 o 
 
194 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 Anglo-Indian sleeps the sleep of healthy exercise in 
 the open air or with but a tent-roof or canvas awning 
 to protect him from the night dew. 
 
 The management of such a party as this involves 
 no little thought and trouble. Few men have ele- 
 phants enough of their own to perform the work 
 required (we know of but one exception — a civilian 
 equally to be esteemed as a sportsman, administrator, 
 and openhearted friend — who had ten), and much 
 diplomacy or official influence has to be exerted to 
 borrow others from rajahs and zemindars. Then the 
 commissariat department is no light matter. The 
 camp is perhaps sent a hundred and fifty miles away 
 from the base of supplies, and nearly all the edibles, 
 and all the wine and liquors required for the 
 Europeans of the party, have to be laid in beforehand ; 
 and in the forest the simple food of camp followers 
 and grain for cattle of all sorts have to be brought, 
 perhaps a two days' journey, from the nearest point 
 on the outskirts of comparative civilisation. Then 
 there is the intelligence department to be looked 
 after — shikarees (native hunters) to be sent out to 
 pick up information as to what swamp is visited by 
 tigers, or where a cow has lately fallen a victim to a 
 tiger's appetite — and cow-herds, wood-cutters and 
 other frequenters of the jungle pumped for such 
 information as they may possess upon the matter in 
 hand. And, lastly, there is the necessity of orga- 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 195 
 
 nising such postal arrangements as will insure the 
 delivery in camp, within a week or so of their 
 despatch from head-quarters, of letters and papers. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the domestic 
 establishment of an Anglo-Indian is great in point 
 of numbers, and when we describe the other hangers- 
 on of an Anglo-Indian sporting party it will be seen 
 that the camp-followers are a formidable body to 
 provide for. In addition to the domestic servants of 
 the sportsmen there are (1) two men (a mahout or 
 driver, and a mate or assistant) with each elephant ; 
 (2) one man to every two camels ; (3) one or two 
 men to every cart; (4) a body of hhalassies (tent 
 pitchers) ; (5) a party of shikarees ; (6) any letter- 
 carriers (dale wallahs) not out upon the road ; (7) 
 two or three moochees whose business it is to skin the 
 animals brought in ; (8) some half-dozen agents for 
 the supply of russud or food for the natives ; and, if 
 there be of the party any official who carries on his 
 duties in the wilderness, there will be a large 
 gathering of amla and their dependants. The forest 
 glade in which this community makes its temporary 
 habitation becomes for the time being a small open- 
 air town, with its population of from one hundred to 
 three hundred souls — to be soon abandoned, and left 
 without a sign of man beyond the ruins of the camp 
 fire-places and the bottles that once held the pale 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 ale of Bass or wine that was trodden out of the 
 grapes of France or Germany. 
 
 Of course this manner of sport involves some con- 
 siderable expenditure of money. The keep of every 
 elephant costs something like two shillings a day. 
 The hire of carts and camels is a considerable item 
 where each costs from 1Z. to 3/. per mensem ; the 
 wages of extra servants swell the account; and 
 moeny paid away to successful shikarees who have 
 tracked down a tiger, to cow-herds and others who 
 have given good information (khuhber), to mahouts 
 who have driven their elephants well, and to any- 
 body or everybody who has assisted in any way, 
 brings the outlay to a very respectable sum total. 
 While the reward ordinarily paid by Government 
 for the slaughter of a tiger is 10s., or at the most 11., 
 the average amount spent by a tiger- shooting party 
 is for each animal killed many times the maximum 
 reward; and, apart from considerations of expense, 
 tiger-shooting on a large scale is beyond the reach 
 of many, because many are not in a position to get 
 the loan of elephants, or to keep their own. 
 
 To some extent the same may be said of pig- 
 sticking, but that sport admits a larger party into 
 the field than tiger-shooting does, and any Anglo- 
 Indian in society who possesses a horse that can go 
 and will face a pig may have a share in any pig- 
 sticking that is to be had within a hundred miles of 
 
IN THE MOFFUSSIL. 197 
 
 his place of residence. As for the pursuit of other 
 quarry, the field is open to all. Gun in hand the 
 Anglo-Indian sportsman may pursue his course over 
 the country unchallenged and unchecked, and make 
 what bag he may. 
 
 In our consideration of Moffussil life we have dwelt 
 at some length upon its salient points^ camp life and 
 shikar ; but we have hardly given undue importance 
 to these. To the shikar of the Indian jungles must 
 be attributed the credit of attracting to India those 
 juniors of the British aristocracy who have, during 
 the last two or three years, gone out to see what 
 tiger-shooting and pig-sticking are like; and in 
 some future period some member of the upper house 
 may render good service to our Indian territory by 
 speaking authoritatively upon some point as to which 
 he gained his personal experience when on a tiger- 
 shooting mission to the jungles below the Himalaya. 
 And to the sportsman, the pleasure-seeker, and the 
 man of business, in the Moffussil, camp life is a 
 matter of vital importance that can hardly be over- 
 rated, and often the only apology for country life as 
 the Englishman in England understands it. 
 
198 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 It is quite possible for a man to spend his life in any 
 one country of Europe without acquiring any intimate 
 knowledge — philological, ethnical, or otherwise — of 
 the inhabitants of any other nationality of the same 
 quarter of the globe. Strange as it may appear, it is 
 equally possible for an Anglo-Indian to live for years 
 in India and remain almost totally ignorant of the 
 language, history, manners and customs of the na- 
 tives among whom he dwells, and whom it is his lot 
 to see every day of his existence. 
 
 To the great mass of Englishmen British India, 
 from Peshawur to Cape Comorin, is ethnically and 
 physically one, just as is Spain or Holland : and its 
 two hundred millions of population are Hindoos and 
 Mahommedans of one or, at the most, two races. 
 There may be added to this much information a 
 vague impression that the Hindoos are divided into 
 classes by ordinances of caste ; and it may even be 
 known that, at some time or other, the Aryans 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 199 
 
 (whoever they may have been) and the Mahomme- 
 dans entered India from foreign parts, and made 
 themselves conspicuous in the History of Hindostan. 
 Many Anglo-Indians, so taught, fail during a life- 
 time in India to add very much to their knowledge 
 of the subject. Men of business may learn some- 
 thing of the worst sides of the native character; 
 they may discover that the Asiatic is not a model of 
 probity, whether he be a denizen of Bengal, Madras, 
 Bombay, or any of the northern provinces — that the 
 argumentum ad verecundiam does not apply to 
 dealings with the native of India as it does where 
 Europeans are concerned — and that the conquered 
 people are not nicely scrupulous in their efforts to 
 overreach or outwit their conquerors and each other. 
 But they may fail to penetrate the character of the 
 people at any other point : and what little they dis- 
 cover of the most superficial characteristics and cus- 
 toms of those around them they erroneously assume 
 to be equally applicable to all the people of India — 
 predicating for the whole what in truth only applies 
 to a part. 
 
 It is a logical deduction that knowledge of a 
 people's character and mode of life must be preceded 
 by more or less intimacy with the language of that 
 people : and when it is stated that hundreds (thou- 
 sands would possibly be within the mark) of Anglo- 
 Indians never learn anything of the native dialects, 
 
200 LIFE IN INDIA. ' 
 
 it will be readily intelligible that their ignorance 
 should be considerable upon all those points as to 
 which information can only come of intercourse. To 
 many Anglo-Indians there never occurs the necessity 
 of speaking any native tongue. The merchants, 
 I bankers, and other non-officials settled down in a 
 provincial capital can transact their business without 
 employing any other than Anglo-Saxon speech. 
 English is the non-official language; and every 
 native employe above the rank of messenger speaks it 
 as a matter of course. In Madras and Bombay 
 those servants who come into contact with the mas- 
 ter speak English (at least it* is more like English 
 than any other language) and act as interpreters for 
 the remainder of the household and the hangers-on 
 of the domestic world. In other parts of India En- 
 glish-speaking servants can be procured with little 
 difficulty. And, at the worst, the non-official of the 
 provincial capital only requires such a limited voca- 
 bulary as will enable him to order dinner. 
 
 So, too, the exigencies that drive the officer of a 
 British regiment to depart from his mother-tongue 
 are few and far between. He generally has a servant 
 who speaks English : the mess waiters are men of the 
 regiment ; and, if he know enough of the vernacular 
 to ask his way back to cantonments or to his camp 
 when he has gone into the interior and missed his 
 road, he knows enough to meet any emergency likely 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTEY. 201 
 
 to befall him. There are, of course, many officers of 
 Her Majesty's British forces who learn more than 
 the minimum positively required of them ; but there 
 are not a few who learn less, and are hopelessly 
 stranded when they make the slightest colloquial 
 attempt. Nor is this unnatural. The British 
 officer is in India only for a time (unless he exchange 
 he may not be there longer than five to ten years) ; 
 that time may be broken by frequent absences on 
 leave, and he cannot anticipate a return to that 
 country after his regiment leaves it. With a suffi- 
 cient show of reason, he argues that it is useless 
 importing the Oordoo or Hindoo language into 
 England, where it can only be employed to the be- 
 wilderment of a Lascar crossing-sweeper whose 
 native dialect is Bengali or Tamil, and from whose 
 linguistic repertoire Oordoo and Hindoo have been 
 wholly omitted ; and, considering the matter from 
 this practical point of view, he leaves the languages 
 to the regimental interpreter. 
 
 To some of the expedients adopted and errors made 
 by Anglo-Indians who have failed to master the ver- 
 nacular, has been accorded a world-wide fame (Anglo- 
 Indian) as great as was ever won by the tons mots 
 of Sheridan or the best utterances of Bochefoucauld. 
 Almost as historical a personage as Warren Hastings 
 is that Calcutta merchant who, wishing to ask what 
 pie he had before him on the dinner table, demanded 
 
202 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 of his Khansamali (in Hindoostanee) whose pie it was, 
 and was duly informed that it was his own. Great, 
 too, is the young officer who, being asked in the 
 course of a colloquial examination how he would ex- 
 press himself in the vernacular if he wished his groom 
 to take his buggy under the shade of a tree, escaped 
 out of the difficulty by saying, that he should go 
 under the tree himself and beckon to the groom to 
 bring the buggy there. And, were it necessary, the 
 list of those who have established for themselves 
 celebrity after the same fashion might be further 
 added to. 
 
 To those who take the trouble to inquire into the 
 matter, it is known that the millions of British 
 India are divided into peoples differing as widely as 
 — sometimes more widely than — the various peoples 
 of Europe. The Aryans, wherever they are found, 
 are of one family, though Tartar and Afghan con- 
 querors have often corrupted the stream of Aryan 
 descent. The Mahommedans, with the exception 
 of the few whose progenitors were forcibly converted 
 to Islamism when the crescent first descended upon 
 the plains of India, are the descendants of those 
 warriors who built up the throne of Delhi and made 
 of Hindostan an empire for their mogul. But among 
 the aborigines there are many tribes which are 
 ethnically and philologically divided. There are 
 tribes closely related to the Malay and Chinese races, 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 203 
 
 and there are others that are wholly unconnected 
 with those branches of the human race. The number 
 of aboriginal dialects spoken throughout India has 
 been computed to exceed two hundred, and none of 
 these has any marked affinity to any other. In the 
 insignificant Naga country near Assam thirty distinct 
 dialects have been detected/and in estimating the 
 number for all India at about two hundred, the 
 error, if there be any, is on the side of moderation. 
 It does not, however, follow that the distinction 
 between the aboriginal: tribes should be as marked in 
 every respect as it is in regard to language. The 
 tongues spoken by the aborigines are unwritten ; and, 
 unfettered by any recorded forms of speech, the 
 branches that have sprung, at a comparatively recent 
 date, from a common stock may have insensibly 
 lapsed away from the original dialect and adopted in 
 its stead those of a peculiarly local character. 
 
 How little is generally known, even in India, of 
 these aboriginal tribes was well instanced in 1855, 
 when the Santhals, driven to desperation by the ex- 
 actions of the Bengallee usurers, the oppression of 
 the Government police, and the insufficiency of legal 
 redress through the agency of our courts, broke out 
 into open insurrection. The Santhals are a distinct 
 tribe, numbering from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000, and 
 inhabiting a tract of country, 400 miles in length and 
 100 miles in breadth, that stretches from a point 
 
204 life m IKDIA. 
 
 close to the Bay of Bengal to the confines of Behar. 
 The Santhal country in 1855 was distinguished by 
 no other boundaries than those formed by nature in 
 the shape of hills and forests. Nowhere was this 
 tract exclusively populated by Santhals, though in 
 many parts they constituted the great bulk of the 
 population. The existence of this tribe was barely 
 recognised, and the land they dwelt in was parcelled 
 off to the rich districts of Bengal through which it 
 traversed. 
 
 In 1855 the British public in India was startled 
 out of its propriety by the sudden intimation that the 
 Santhals had risen and were murdering many of the 
 Europeans and natives in their neighbourhood. 
 Then from some came the question, ' Who are the 
 Santhals ? ' Not a few (dubious as to whether a 
 Santhal were some uncomfortable quadruped of the 
 jungle or reptile of the swamp) asked * What are the 
 Santhals? 5 And at the expense of an insurrection 
 in the very heart of the richest and most civilised 
 province of India there was imparted the lesson that 
 the Santhal was a human entity — indebted for his 
 being neither to the Aryan, Tartar, Afghan, nor any 
 other invading race — the descendant of an ancient 
 tribe that in prehistoric time was driven by a foreign 
 host into the forests," hills, and swamps, and one of a 
 people numbering more than a million souls. Even 
 the Government officials who immediately ruled over 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 205 
 
 the Santhals were benightedly ignorant as to the 
 character of these people. They knew something 
 about the Bengallee, and could not recognise the 
 fact that Santhals who lived in the vicinity of 
 Bengallees could differ materially from their neigh- 
 bours. The Santhals represented their wrongs and 
 asked for redress. When this course failed, they 
 sent to the local authorities an ultimatum which 
 threatened war unless their grievances were inquired 
 into. And, to the surprise of the authorities, they 
 kept their word. It was a startling blow of course. 
 The authorities knew that Bengallees were too 
 cowardly to risk their persons in any overt action 
 against the Government— too little mindful of the 
 value of truth to commence hostilities merely because 
 they had promised to do so — and here, to their utter 
 amazement, was a tribe whose members were not as 
 the Bengallees around them — an uncultured people 
 to whom truth yet came instinctively, and who, armed 
 with a good cause (and axes, bows, and arrows), were 
 not afraid to array themselves against the muskets of 
 our native Sepoys. 
 
 While it is thus possible to live in India and know 
 little or nothing of the people, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult to know all about them that might be desired. 
 Even as to the origin of the races, much is enveloped 
 in doubt. History is mute as to the date when the 
 fair race of Aryan conquerors passed the Himalaya 
 
206 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 and entered India. The struggle between the 
 Aryans and the aborigines is unrecorded. Tradition 
 fails to cast any satisfactory light upon the events of 
 that early period; and present facts are the main 
 evidences of the extent and variance of the tribes. 
 
 We know that, in that far-off time, the Aryans 
 occupied a prominent position. Sallying forth from 
 Central Asia, they founded colonies in India, Persia, 
 Greece, and Rome. Distant branches of this con- 
 quering people penetrated to Spain and England. 
 And the language of the Aryan formed the basis of 
 many of the languages of Asia and nearly all of 
 Europe. In entering India they were to the abori- 
 gines of the country as creatures of a high order of 
 civilisation to barbarians. Hated and despised by 
 their conquerors, the dark-skinned tribes for the 
 most part fled before the fair-complexioned invaders. 
 But in the course of time the peoples in some degree 
 amalgamated. The aborigines, where not driven 
 into the jungles as fugitives from civilisation, were 
 absorbed into the lower grades of the conquering 
 tribe, and while they received some of the Aryan 
 higher form of religion they contributed those ele- 
 ments of superstition and demon worship that now 
 characterise the Hindoo faith. In the north the 
 aborigines almost entirely disappeared, and with 
 them went the trace of their superstition and weird 
 rites. In the wild forest tracts of the central table 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 207 
 
 land the aborigines held their ground untouched by 
 Aryan conquest. And in the south generally the 
 subjugation of the aboriginal tribes by the Aryans 
 was less complete than it was in the north. The 
 Hindooism of to-day is a composite religion to which 
 many differing forms of worship have imparted some- 
 thing. The simple faith coming of revelation that 
 peculiarised the Aryan has had engrafted upon it 
 much of the idolatry of Buddhism and the heathen- 
 ism of the aborigines ; and by a degenerate priest- 
 hood have been introduced changes of form and 
 belief that have not been of a reforming or improving 
 nature. But there yet remain many millions of 
 aborigines who, having stood aloof from the current 
 of change that has flown past them for centuries, 
 retain the belief of their forefathers free from any 
 tinge of a foreign element. The Aryan of the East 
 has succumbed before the Mahommedan invader, the 
 empire pf the Moslem has fallen before the might of 
 an Aryan race coming from the West and not yet 
 effeminated by luxury and indolence. The crescent 
 and the cross have both swept victorious over the 
 empire won from the aborigines by the Aryans of 
 Central Asia, and yet among the children of the 
 soil are to be found dialects, rites, and ceremonies 
 that can in no wise be traced to any of the conquer- 
 ing races. 
 
 To the contempt in which the aborigines were held 
 
208 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 by the early Aryans is doubtless attributable the ori- 
 gin of caste distinctions. These distinctions are 
 most marked where the Aryan conquest was most 
 complete, and vary in proportion to the extent of the 
 subjugation of the aborigines. At first the division 
 was the simple one of Aryan and non- Aryan, Bhra- 
 min and Sudra ; and it was not until historic times 
 that caste as it is now known became an institution. 
 By Manu the classification was made fourfold, and 
 Bhramins, Khe trees, Yaisyas, and Sudras were distin- 
 guished as the four castes ; but this arrangement by 
 no means adequately represents the manner in which 
 Hindoo society is split up into classes. 
 
 Caste is one of the first Hindoo institutions with 
 which the Anglo-Indian becomes familiar, and he 
 finds it generally employed to his discomfiture. A 
 Hindoo bearer will object to touching his master's 
 cup or plate on the score of caste : he will lose his 
 caste if he touch anything upon or from which his 
 master has eaten or drunk ; he will lose his caste if 
 his master does not give him a day's leave to enable 
 him to perform his mother's shraad (funeral obse- 
 quies) ; his caste is, in fact, a perishable possession 
 that is to be broken upon the slightest provocation 
 where the provocation comes in the form of the 
 master's convenience. Otherwise it is often elastic 
 enough ; and it is always recoverable upon the pay- 
 ment of a certain mulct to the Bhramins, and the 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 209 
 
 entertainment of the caste brothers of him who has 
 been excommunicated. Exclusion from caste privi- 
 leges implies that the outlawed one is neither to 
 marry, eat, drink, nor smoke with those of his sect 
 until he is rehabilitated. He is hookah jpdnee bund 
 (i.e. his caste brethren may not drink water from the 
 vessel, or smoke the hookah that he uses), and he is 
 made to pay for restoration to his original position. 
 He cannot, being ousted from one caste, seek refuge 
 in the grade immediately below it. Born of any one 
 caste, he is of that or no caste at all to the end of his 
 days ; and for him there is, as far as caste is con- 
 cerned, neither advance nor retrogression in the 
 social scale. 
 
 We have said that the fourfold classification fails 
 to comprise all the artificial divisions of Hindoo 
 society. Between the Brahmin and the lowest order 
 of Sudra — the Pariah of the Hindoo race — there are 
 innumerable classes. Even the Brahmins are broken 
 up into sects. In Bengal there are the Koolin 
 Brahmins, to whom other Brahmins of Bengal are as 
 dirt. The male Koolin may intermarry with other 
 orders of Brahmins, but it is considered degrading to 
 the last degree for a female Koolin to wed with any 
 but one of her own sect. Held in general respect as 
 a highly eligible person, the male Koolin makes 
 matrimony a profession, and goes about the country 
 seeking wives whom he is paid to marry, and whom 
 
 p 
 
210 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 he leaves, possibly for ever, immediately after the 
 ceremony. But let the Koolin go among the Brah- 
 mins of the north, and he finds that the ascendency 
 he enjoyed in his own province has disappeared. He 
 is no longer a superior being, but sinks at once 
 almost to the level of a Sndra. 
 
 There is no doubt that the institution of caste has 
 been the main cause of the degeneration of one sec- 
 tion of the community and the non-advance of the 
 other. Caste has been a social drag throughout. 
 The Brahmin, prohibited by caste from putting his 
 hand to the plough, has become a creature of sloth. 
 The Sudra, held to be an inferior animal, has had 
 little opportunity, and no great desire, to rise. As 
 son has succeeded to father in caste he has been con- 
 tent to do as his father did in every respect. The 
 son of a carpenter becomes a carpenter. The son of 
 a cowherd is satisfied to spend his life as a follower 
 of cattle ; and so on up and down the scale. Inter- 
 marriage between caste and caste is not permitted, 
 and only within certain narrow limits may the mem- 
 bers of one caste accept food or drink from the hands 
 of people of other castes. Food cooked by a Brahmin 
 of Bengal may be eaten by any Bengalee of any caste, 
 but will not be touched by many Hindoos of the 
 north. Food cooked by a Sudra of low caste may 
 not be eaten even by Sudras of superior grade. The 
 Bengal Brahmin may drink water from the lota 
 
THE NATIVES OP THE COUNTKY. 211 
 
 (brass or copper drinking vessel) of the gwala (cow- 
 herd). The Brahmin of the north-west may similarly 
 honour the lota of the Jcahar (palanquin carrier). 
 Edibles, such as parched grain and sweetmeats, 
 cooked without the application of water in the pro- 
 cess, may be eaten by Hindoos of a higher caste than 
 the cooks. But the general rule is one which tends 
 to separate each class from the other by a barrier 
 that is insulting to the lower, and demoralising to 
 the higher grade. 
 
 To the Anglo-Indian of an inquiring turn of mind, 
 all, or nearly all, the mysteries of caste may be re- 
 vealed. He may learn much of the habits and 
 customs of the natives, where those habits and cus- 
 toms are of an exoteric character. But of the inner 
 man — of the thoughts and feelings of the people — he 
 knows little or nothing. He may speak their lan- 
 guage accurately and spend the best part of his days 
 in transacting business with them, but his knowledge 
 of them goes little below the surface. His study of 
 the native is like a long and searching look into a 
 mirror — a great deal seems to result out of it, but 
 what is seen is a phantasm only, and everything 
 beneath the surface has escaped the eye. 
 
 This is readily explained by the fact, that there is 
 neither communion nor sympathy between the Anglo- 
 Indians and the people of the country. In business, 
 whether between man and man or the governed and 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 their governors, they may meet frequently, but there is 
 no society common to both which has any other object 
 than business. The Anglo-Indian merchant who 
 trusts thousands to the keeping of his native banker 
 or banyan, and who for years has seen that trusted 
 agent every day of the week at his office, very possi- 
 bly does not know whether that functionary has one 
 wife or half a dozen, and is wholly ignorant of the 
 sentiments of that individual upon any other subject 
 than piece goods, bills of exchange, and kindred mat- 
 ters of mercantile existence. The Anglo-Indian who 
 sees most of the natives generally is the government 
 official. Day after day he is brought into contact 
 with them in office and cutcherry, and very fre- 
 quently he receives visits from those of the superior 
 class at his residence, or pays state visits to them at 
 theirs. But the character of the native's conversation 
 with the government officer is stereotyped optimism, 
 and what he says is not by any means what he 
 thinks, but what he believes will best please his 
 listener. 
 
 Very weary work to the Anglo-Indian official is the 
 reception of these matter-of-form visits. Ordinarily 
 the visitor is peculiarised by one of two weaknesses ; 
 he is either stolidly reticent or impertinently inquisi- 
 tive. In the first case he allows his share of the 
 dialogue to be performed by the courtiers, scribes, and 
 relatives who stand around him while the interview 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 213 
 
 lasts. In the latter case he conducts the conversa- 
 tion himself, and takes every opportunity of diverting 
 it into the direction of personal interrogation. But 
 in no instance will he express views likely to be 
 opposed to those of the govern ment generally, or the 
 individual member of it whom he addresses. On the 
 other hand, the Anglo-Indian is restricted by punc- 
 tilio from entering upon many subjects upon which 
 the natives might be expected to know something. 
 To inquire about a Hindoo (or even a Mahommedan) 
 wife would be a serious violation of etiquette ; for of 
 the arcana of the harem the Anglo-Indian is sup- 
 posed to be utterly ignorant, and with the wives and 
 daughters of the native no European may associate. 
 To introduce theology would be stigmatised as at- 
 tempting proselytism. And to talk about other than 
 immediately local matters would in all probability 
 result in a monologue altogether unintelligible and 
 very uninteresting to the hearer. Some subjects are 
 tabooed because it is a breach of manners to address 
 the native upon them — others because they are 
 beyond the native's depth; and the necessity of 
 avoiding what is prohibited materially impedes the 
 conversation. 
 
 Let us see what manner of discourse does pass 
 current on the occasion of a formal visit paid by the 
 native to the Anglo-Indian. Commencing with the 
 zemindar or rajah who inclines to reticence, we find 
 
214 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 that what transpires is something as follows : — 
 Native seats himself, and prepares for the conversa- 
 tional rack. Anglo-Indian inquires after his visitor's 
 health, and is informed by the native, on his own 
 responsibility, that, thanks to the ikbhal (power) of 
 the Anglo-Indian, the health inquired after is good. 
 Ominous silence ensues, during which Native chews 
 pan and, perhaps, the cud of bitter fancy, while he 
 gazes through the head of the Anglo- Indian into 
 space. Anglo-Indian propounds the remarkable fact 
 that it is fine weather, and hopes that the crops of 
 the Native's ryots are promising. Native seeks 
 information on this point from his hangers-on, one of 
 whom makes the necessary reply. More silence, that 
 is broken by the Anglo-Indian (of course) asking 
 what Native thinks of the railway and electric tele- 
 graph. Native, not thinking at all about either of 
 these innovations of European origin, leaves the 
 response to his attendants, who pronounce themselves 
 in favour of railway, telegraph, and everything else 
 introduced by their British rulers : and so on to the 
 moment when the Anglo-Indian, feeling that he 
 and the native have endured sufficient discomfort, 
 pronounces the magic word rooJcsut (you are at liberty 
 to go) and the interview is over. Where the native 
 is talkative it is much the same as far as the Anglo- 
 Indian's share of the dialogue is concerned. The 
 subject of rail, or telegraph, or agriculture is no more 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 215 
 
 likely to succeed with the loquacious than with the 
 silent visitor. But then the Anglo-Indian may be 
 subjected to a sharp examination. He may be asked 
 whether he is married — how old he is — what he paid 
 for, and where he bought, his gun or watch or any 
 other article that attracts his visitor's notice — or any 
 other objective query that suggests itself to the 
 native mind : and by these questions will be staved 
 off any effort made by the Anglo-Indian to enter into 
 reasonable conversation. There are undoubtedly 
 many natives of high intellectual capacity and liberal 
 education, who are able to form a reasonable opinion 
 upon men and things, but even with these conversa- 
 tion is fettered ; and intellect and education do not 
 make such men any the less optimists, assumedly, in 
 all that relates to the views and actions of the 
 governing class. 
 
 Between the better class of Hindoo and Mahom- 
 medan females and the Anglo-Indian there is no asso- 
 ciation, and but little between the Anglo-Indian lady 
 and the natives, male or female. The native would 
 consider his household desecrated if the Anglo-Indian 
 gentleman gazed upon the unveiled features of his 
 wife or daughter, though the wife or daughter might 
 be as old as Parr, or as ugly as the veiled prophet ; and 
 he would very much prefer that the sacred precincts 
 of the zenanah should not be entered by the Anglo- 
 Indian lady. On the other hand, there is very little 
 
216 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 in favour of, and much against, the admission of the 
 native to Anglo-Indian feminine society. The native 
 would not appreciate such a privilege, and would cer- 
 tainly not reciprocate it ; he would not know how to 
 adapt himself to the occasion, and could hardly fail to 
 make his society more or less disagreeable. To the 
 native mind a woman is an inferior animal — a wife no 
 more the equal of her lord than the veriest drudge of 
 the household — and the Anglo- Indian wife a social 
 anomaly that he cannot understand. He sees the 
 Anglo-Indian wife the constant companion and often 
 adviser of her husband ; he sees her displaying her 
 face to, and conversing openly with, men of all 
 grades ; he sees her in the ball-room dancing for her 
 own amusement, or, in other words, doing for her 
 own pleasure what he hires professional nautch 
 (dancing) girls to do for his ; and he cannot believe 
 that with so much liberty, so many opportunities to 
 do wrong, she can be faithful. He knows that, 
 despite veils and bolts and bars and zenanah walls, 
 the native wife not unfrequently contrives to carry on 
 a clandestine flirtation ; and mistaking cause and 
 effect, he supposes that the European female must 
 be the less virtuous in inverse ratio to the greater 
 trust placed in her. 
 
 The natives whom the Anglo-Indian knows most 
 intimately are his domestic servants. Though some 
 of these may assume the right of keeping their 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 217 
 
 womenkind hidden away from the sahib's eye, and 
 caste may be now and then erected as a barrier 
 between the master and his retainers, there is greater 
 intimacy and more sympathy between the Anglo- 
 Indian and this class than are to be found between 
 him and any other section. The fondness of bearers 
 and ayahs for the English children they have nursed 
 is proverbial, and if the fondness inclines towards the 
 utter ruination of its object it is at all events sincere. 
 In cases of illness the native often shines forth in a 
 light of unwonted brilliance ; the bearer who has been 
 hitherto an unbending stickler as to caste will, in the 
 sick-room of his master, throw caste to the winds and 
 perform menial offices that at any other season he 
 would positively refuse to put his hand to. In some 
 Anglo-Indian families the present generation of ser- 
 vants has been bred immediately under the eye of the 
 sahib. The master has seen the Jcitmutghar of to-day, 
 as a child, running about the compound with no other 
 covering than a piece of string, with a key appended 
 thereto, girded round his infantile loins ; he has seen 
 him, as a lad, acquiring the art of waiting at table, 
 and breaking many articles of glass-ware and crockery 
 during his novicate; he has very possibly physicked 
 him through attacks of cholera, dysentery, small-pox, 
 or fever: and the Jcitmutghar, arrived at manhood, 
 feels that the master is bound to him (though not 
 necessarily that he is bound to the master) by the ties 
 
218 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 of many benefits bestowed. On some occasions the 
 feminine belongings of the native servant are brought 
 with disagreeable prominence to the notice of the 
 master or mistress. An invalid wife or daughter is 
 frequently pleaded as the excuse for release from duty, 
 and instances have been known of one domestic 
 taking holidays on half a dozen different occasions 
 for the purpose of burying as many mothers. 
 
 How little the Anglo-Indian knows of the innermost 
 thoughts of the native was well instanced by the 
 mutiny of 1857. To this day opinion is divided as to 
 whether the revolt of the native army and the rebel- 
 lion of many of the people were parts of a deeply 
 planned scheme for the overthrow of the British 
 power, or the unanticipated effects of a sudden fear 
 that the rulers of the country were about to trick the 
 people — Hindoo and Mahommedan — into Christ- 
 ianity. There are those who look upon the introduc- 
 tion of greased cartridges for the use of the native 
 army as the first cause of the troubles of 1857-58, 
 while others consider that the feeling against the 
 new ammunition only precipitated a movement that 
 had been long contemplated. Whatever the truth as 
 to this moot point may be, it stands to reason that 
 the mutiny is a proof of Anglo-Indian ignorance of 
 native feeling. If the outbreak was preconcerted, 
 thousands of natives must have been aware of what 
 threatened, while not one of the governing class had 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 219 
 
 an inkling that anything but profound peace was to 
 be looked for in the immediate future. And, in any 
 case, there remains the fact that fifteen years after 
 the event, and when the possibility of punishment 
 threatens only an exceptional few of those concerned 
 in it, doubt still exists as to the origin of the Indian 
 mutiny. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that the conduct of 
 many of the participators in that memorable outbreak 
 was sufficiently enigmatical to inspire reasonable 
 doubt as to the motives that prompted it. In some 
 native regiments the best men mutinied, while the 
 worst stood firm. Many regiments continued faithful 
 while temptation and opportunity to revolt were 
 greatest, only to mutiny when there was every reason 
 of self-interest against it. In some instances, the 
 first object of the mutinous sepoys was the murder of 
 their officers — on more than one occasion a few faith- 
 ful soldiers, standing by their officers to the last, 
 were shot down by their brethren. Sometimes a 
 regiment mutinied and went off with band, colours, 
 and regimental treasure chest, without molesting 
 any officer ; and one regiment notably distinguished 
 itself by escorting its officers to a place of safety, and 
 there leaving them with an advance of a month's pay 
 to each. Even among the nearest relations there 
 was not always any very clear understanding as to 
 what course was to be pursued : e.g., the greater 
 
220 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 portion of a regiment of irregular cavalry mutinied 
 and left its station. Among the few who remained 
 faithful were a father and two sons. The father told 
 his officers that the mutineers might be induced to 
 return to their flag if some one were sent after them, 
 and volunteered the services of one of his sons for 
 this duty. One son was sent off accordingly, but did 
 not return either with or without the mutineers. 
 The other son was sent after his delinquent brother, 
 and did come back ; but he came back alone, with 
 the information that his brother had determined to go 
 on with those who had elected to fight under the 
 banner of the Mogul. 
 
 If any class of Anglo-Indians could pretend to 
 knowledge of the native character, the officers of the 
 old sepoy army constituted that class, and yet bitterly 
 did the fact come home to these how superficial their 
 knowledge was. With few exceptions, the officers 
 trusted thoroughly in their own men until the last, 
 believing it possible that any regiment rather than 
 their own might go. Publicly and privately, the offi- 
 cers expressed their confidence in their sepoys up to 
 the moment when confidence was rudely shaken by 
 the unpalatable truth that the sepoys were mutineers. 
 One example of this misplaced reliance may be given, 
 both for its own melancholy interest and its general 
 application, and briefly we will record it. 
 
 Col. H commanded an irregular cavalry regi- 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 221 
 
 ment. A beau sabreur and kindly gentleman, lie had 
 to all appearances made himself the idol of his men. 
 His regiment was to him everything, and he not un- 
 naturally believed that his devotion to his men was 
 reciprocated. The mutiny broke out, and public 
 journals canvassed the possible faithlessness of the 
 different sepoy corps. One journal ventured to 
 question the loyalty of the regiment commanded by 
 
 Gol. H , and immediately afterwards inserted a 
 
 letter from Col. H , in which that officer indig- 
 nantly protested against the slander upon those men 
 ' among whom he would trust his life.' When this 
 letter appeared, the hand that wrote it was cold and 
 lifeless — the writer had been murdered by those 
 whose character it was one of his last and most 
 welcome offices to defend. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the Anglo-Indian 
 peculiarly occupies an isolated position in respect of 
 other classes in India. There is a wide breach 
 between the aborigines and Aryan people, as wide a 
 separation between Mahommedans and other sects, 
 and association is very restricted between Hindoos of 
 various grades. India has never seen such an amal- 
 gamation of conquerors and conquered as has been 
 witnessed in our own land. After thousands of years 
 the aborigines of many tribes retain the primitive 
 character that distinguished them prior to Aryan 
 conquest. And the amalgamation of the Mussulman 
 
222 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 rulers with, the other peoples has been no more com- 
 plete than that of the Anglo-Saxons who destroyed 
 the Mogul empire. 
 
 Of the Mussulmans of India we have hitherto 
 spoken in general terms. We have discussed them 
 as coming within the common category of c natives/ 
 nor is it necessary for our purpose that we should 
 devote any great space specially to this class. The 
 Mahommedan, like the Hindoo, enters the service of 
 the Anglo-Indian in various capacities, and the rela- 
 tions of the governing class are much the same to 
 both races. There are, however, distinctions in the 
 offices held or performed by Mussulmans and Hindoos. 
 A Mahommedan rarely appears in the domestic 
 establishment save as a kitchen servant, table atten- 
 dant, water carrier, syce, or chuprassie. As a public 
 servant, the Hindoo may be either an uncovenanted 
 civilian, holding a judicial or revenue appointment, a 
 clerk, or a messenger ; but the Mahommedan, while 
 he is often found in the higher and lower of these 
 positions, seldom occupies the post of clerk. In the 
 army and police they enter upon equal terms, but the 
 Hindoos preponderate in the foot regiments, and the 
 Mahommedans (Pathans) constitute the majority of 
 the light cavalry recruits. As landholders the Hin- 
 doos occupy the foremost position. Eajahs and 
 wealthy Hindoo zemindars form the landed aristocracy, 
 and there are many thousands of well-to-do Hindoo 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 223 
 
 middle-men between the great landlords and the 
 peasantry. As landholders the Mussulmans in many 
 parts of India hold a very subordinate position. The 
 most opulent of this class are frequently those whose 
 incomes are derived from state pensions : and there 
 are but few gradations between the wealthy nawaub 
 and the poor ryot who supports himself upon the 
 produce of half an acre. 
 
 In one respect the conquest of India by the Ma- 
 hommedans has an important bearing upon our 
 subject. The warriors who founded the empire of 
 Hindostan only in the first flush of triumph attempted 
 the forcible conversion of the Hindoos to Islamism. 
 The satraps who, in allegiance to the Mogul, ruled 
 over the conquered provinces, did not crush out Hin- 
 doo belief and customs, or wrest the soil entirely from 
 the Hindoos who held it. But the conquerors gave a 
 language to the country which, if it never reached 
 the masses of remote districts, was intelligible to the 
 educated people throughout the land. This language 
 was Oordoo (the language of the camp), or, as it is 
 sometimes called, Hindostanee. Written in the 
 Persian character, it was an amalgam of Persian and 
 Hindee, and it had its origin in that city (Delhi) 
 which was the capital of the newly made empire. 
 Persian, pure and undefiled, was then, and continued 
 for many years after British rule, the language of the 
 courts ; but to the uneducated, Persian was an un- 
 

 224 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 known tongue, and Oordoo — the dialect of the Delhi 
 camp — was the only language that passed current 
 through the length and breadth of the Mogul's 
 dominions. 
 
 The Mahommedans succeeded to a great extent in 
 making their dialect the common language of the 
 many provinces of Hindostan ; and, in reviewing 
 what has been effected in this direction by ourselves, 
 we may see what prospect there is of the English 
 tongue becoming generally adopted by the millions of 
 British India. 
 
 It has already been remarked that in Bombay and 
 Madras there are many servants who speak a sort of 
 English; such servants are to be found in smaller 
 numbers in other provinces; and there are petty 
 tradesmen and hawkers who, to a similar extent, are 
 conversant with the Anglo-Saxon tongue. But the 
 smattering of English that these classes can boast of 
 is generally acquired by a viva voce process ; it is 
 handed down from father to son, or ' picked up 5 
 anyhow, and, at the best, it is based upon very im- 
 perfect rudimentary knowledge or book learning. 
 On the other hand there are those who acquire a 
 knowledge of our language from study in the schools 
 and colleges. By this class (which rarely comprises 
 Mahommedans) the acquisition of English is looked 
 upon as the first step towards employment under the 
 Anglo-Indian official or non-official ; and its members 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 225 
 
 may be found distributed over the country as clerks 
 telegraph assistants, railway station masters, and so 
 forth, wherever British rule has placed an outpost or 
 British energy has started an agency. But beyond 
 these classes, acquaintance, even of the slightest, with 
 the English language does not extend. English is 
 not the language of the courts, of the aristocracy, or 
 of the people. The rural populations know it not. 
 And the few to whom it is known are ordinarily those 
 who are immediately dependent upon, and associated 
 with, the Anglo-Indian. 
 
 But if our teaching has failed to make our language 
 common to the governed and their governors, it has 
 created a class through the agency of which the mil- 
 lions of India may hereafter be materially improved, 
 if not (as many sanguine people hope) converted to 
 Christianity. The member of this class is recognised 
 as the ' Bengallee Baboo,' or Young Bengal, and, 
 except the accident of birth, he has little more affinity 
 to other natives than the Anglo-Indian whose lan- 
 guage he speaks. Eeceiving his education at a. 
 government school, the Bengallee Baboo has an op- 
 portunity of learning much of the course considered 
 necessary in European academies. Mathematics, 
 geography, history, and English classics are all open 
 to him, and he works energetically enough to master 
 what is placed before him. To the native school-boy 
 the temptation to idle or play truant does not often 
 
226 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 occur. At ten he is sufficiently aware of what is 
 most to his interest to feel a pleasure in his studies, 
 and until he arrives at manhood his faculties are 
 quick to seize upon knowledge. There are at some of 
 the government colleges native lads of seventeen and 
 eighteen who have made very considerable progress in 
 the higher mathematics, and to whom the differential 
 calculus is no more recondite than the alphabet. But 
 when, arrived at manhood, the student leaves the 
 school, he substitutes the business of life and the 
 pleasures of the zenanah for the pursuit of scholar- 
 ship ; thenceforth his mind travels upon a retrograde 
 track — quadratic equations assume for him the guise 
 of impenetrable puzzles — the simplest rules of arith- 
 metic become enveloped in doubt — historical and 
 geographical facts get mixed in hopeless confusion 
 regardless of person, time, and place, and of the 
 English belles-lettres only so much remains as is kept 
 in his mind by the exigencies of every-day life. 
 
 But while at the government school he has learnt 
 much that is neither mentioned in the curriculum 
 nor to be lost as soon as he has closed his books. 
 \[ He has learnt to disbelieve in Hindooism ; and, 
 though he may not substitute any other belief for the 
 one he has lost, thenceforward to him the faith of his 
 forefathers is nothing but an empty form— Siva, 
 Kali, Doorga, and the other members of the Hindoo 
 pantheon, base idols that it were vain to propitiate — 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 227 
 
 and caste restrictions ordinances to be despised. 
 The man of the Young Bengal class, while retaining 
 the name and some of the domestic forms of the 
 Hindoo, is, as to his religion, a believer in one great 
 Creator or a believer in nothing, and his views npon 
 many social subjects are as broad as those of the 
 Anglo-Indian whose speech he has been taught. At 
 first his liberality of opinion was principally evinced 
 by his rejection of the prohibition against eating and 
 drinking with the Faringhees, and indulgence in the 
 forbidden drinks and viands of the white man. He 
 did not object to a bottle of champagne or a slice of 
 ham, hateful as those objects are in the eyes of the 
 orthodox Hindoo, and when he ate and drank these 
 things he thought that he had performed all the 
 ceremonials that constitute the Christian faith. Dis- 
 carding the simple and insufficient costume of his 
 fathers, he adopted, in a modified form, the garments 
 of the Anglo-Indian ; and for the slow palanquin he 
 substituted the rapid dog-cart. But in the course of 
 time his superior enlightenment has been evinced in 
 matters of a higher order, and it is due to the efforts 
 of this class that the marriage of Hindoo widows 
 promises to become a general custom, and the union 
 of two unthinking babies may, in good time, cease to 
 be a necessary feature of the matrimonial ceremony. 
 And sorely is some amelioration of the Hindoo 
 marriage law required. Tied together as infants, 
 
 o 2 
 
 U" 
 
228 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 there is rarely much love between the Hindoo man 
 and wife ; and too often the husband (if not indeed 
 the wife) seeks elsewhere that affection which cannot 
 be kindled on the domestic hearth. But to the 
 woman this is not all. Married while yet a baby, 
 she is by the old Hindoo law married once for all. 
 Her lord and master may die before the marriage 
 has gone beyond the mere betrothal, but she is 
 thenceforth a widow whom no other man may wed. 
 Old Mr. Weller might, as far as this matter is 
 concerned, have found favour among the strictest 
 Brahmins of the old school, so entirely in accordance 
 with their views were his sentiments as to widow 
 marriage. Left a widow, the Hindoo woman is for 
 the rest of her life a slave in the household of her 
 husband's family. No hopes may she cherish of 
 having a home and children to call her own. She 
 may not even satisfy her womanly vanity by wearing 
 the trinkets that her sex (only in India of course) 
 delight in. And her existence is one of hopeless 
 drudgery and unsatisfied desires. But the Bengallee 
 Baboo has appeared as a modern Perseus to rescue the 
 Hindoo damsel from her chains. Already, in the face 
 of old-world prejudices, many Hindoo widows have 
 been re-elected to the privileges of matrimony,, and as 
 the opinions of Young Bengal extend, such marriages 
 will become every day of more common occurrence. 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 229 
 
 There are in the ranks of the Young Bengal school 
 some who enjoy independence — often affluence — 
 from landed property or trade; but the great ma- 
 jority are the Baboos who are in the employment of 
 Anglo-Indians as clerks or agents. As accountants, 
 copyists, telegraph assistants, and station masters, 
 they succeed admirably, but they rarely aspire to rise 
 above the condition of clerkdom ; and, as a rule, 
 they hold aloof from the other classes of natives. A 
 few of them may be trusted to draft official letters in 
 English ; but though the greater number spend their 
 lives in copying and speaking English, it is rarely 
 safe to trust to their original composition. The 
 Baboo, who at college has gone through Addison, 
 Goldsmith, Milton, Shakespeare, and other British 
 classics, may have a few odd quotations laid up in 
 the storehouse of his memory. He may, upon being 
 detected in an error of account, plead that ' to err is 
 human, to forgive divine,' or urge that ' sweet mercy 
 is nobility's true badge.' He may, wanting some- 
 thing of his master, suggest a remark about * a tear 
 for pity, and a hand open as day for melting 
 charity !' But he may not be always depended upon 
 for a simple and grammatical specimen of English 
 prose ; and some of his original productions, though 
 not calculated to facilitate the transaction of busi- 
 ness, are eminently adapted to the requirements of a 
 
230 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 comic album. We give a specimen of the florid 
 order of Baboo verbiage — 
 
 Honoured Sir, — With much obedient solicitude and des- 
 pondent affliction, I come before your grace's footstool, to 
 inform you that I am wanting a situation, and my families 
 starving for want of breads. Knowing your honour's Uni- 
 versal malevolence, my only trust is in your bereaving me 
 with the favour of your benignant speculation and a second 
 writership in your office on Rs. 20 a month. If I will retain 
 this nothing shall be wanting to perform my duties and give 
 you supplementary satisfaction. You are the father of my 
 orphans and the protector of their parents, who, for want of a 
 few pice, cannot provide the smallest banquet for their little 
 •ones. I have got many certificates given to me by other 
 -gentlemans who I have served, and if I may wait upon your 
 honour I will depose them at your feet for perusal. They 
 will give you every malformation about my posthumous 
 works. And if your honour shall give me something, or get 
 some other gentlemans to furnish me with a benefaction, the 
 prayers of me and my orphans shall ascend to the Almighty 
 to call down benedictions and heavy rains of wealth and 
 health upon your respectable head. 
 
 And your obliged and grateful servant shall, in duty bound, 
 ever pray. 
 
 Eam Chunder Butterchuej. 
 
 And now we come to the consideration of an 
 important class, which is more or less related to all 
 the races hitherto spoken of, though claiming its 
 descent from a people to which we have made no 
 allusion. This class comprises the Eurasians or 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 231 
 
 half-castes — the people who trace their ancestry 
 back to the early Portuguese traders, while through 
 their veins flows a mixed stream, to which aborigi- 
 nes, Aryans, Mahommedans and Anglo-Indians have 
 all, in a greater or less degree, contributed. To the 
 Portuguese must be accredited the honour of being 
 first among modern Europeans to develop the mer- 
 cantile resources of India. They were the predeces- 
 sors of the English in Indian commerce. And to one 
 of their countrymen, Vasco di Gama, it is due that 
 the long sea route round the Cape was opened out to 
 the merchant marine of the world.- But, though 
 they did much to foster trade between Europe and 
 India, they never appeared in Hindostan as 
 conquerors. Territorial aggrandisement did not 
 tempt them to seek possession of more land than was 
 required for their depots ; and the grandest monu- 
 ments they have left, as witnesses of their presence 
 in the country, are the families of De Souza, De 
 Silva, and similar patronymics that now are scattered 
 throughout India wherever their Anglo-Indian 
 brethren are to be found. 
 
 It is not always easy to determine where the line 
 is to be drawn between the Eurasian and the Anglo- 
 Indian of pure descent — to say where one class ends 
 and the other begins. The presence of Indian blood 
 in any quantity may be detected easily enough, and 
 the Anglo-Indian has no doubt about the Eurasian, 
 

 232 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 of whom it is facetiously (if not good-naturedly) said, 
 that lie has a considerable touch of the tar brush 
 about him, or a tolerable dash of coffee in his 
 composition, or is four or six annas (i.e. four or six 
 parts of black blood out of sixteen, there being six- 
 teen annas in the rupee). But in many good Anglo- 
 Indian families there is a suspicion of the native 
 element — too faint to be recognised by any external 
 signs or peculiarities of manner, and too remotely 
 drawn from its original source to have retained any 
 of its original character. 
 
 With those who, despite an inappreciable mixture 
 of blood, are in mind and manner, by name and edu- 
 cation, English, we have not to deal when treating of 
 the Eurasian. Our purpose lies with a sect that is 
 not English in any respect, a class that stands alone, 
 totus, teres, atque rotundus, characterised by nearly all 
 the worst proclivities, and few of the virtues, of the 
 races from which it has sprung. 
 
 In the capitals of all the provinces Eurasians are 
 to be found in hundreds or thousands. In every 
 station where there are Anglo-Indians they are to be 
 found in numbers proportionate to the extent of the 
 Anglo-Indian population. And isolated members of 
 the fraternity may be met with upon lines of railway, 
 in indigo factories, and in silk filatures. But he is 
 never discovered in any other position than that of 
 a dependant upon the European. He may be a clerk 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 233 
 
 (Eurasian clerks being known as heranees), or a 
 billiard-marker, or he may occupy a subordinate 
 situation in connection with the railway or tele- 
 graph ; he may be an assistant in some branch of 
 commerce or trade, or he may eke out existence by 
 rearing poultry for the Anglo-Indian table. Excep- 
 tionally he may win his way to well-paid appoint- 
 ments in the uncovenanted civil service. But he is 
 rarely found as an independent trader, and never as 
 a cultivator. He is essentially a creature of the 
 town, and his home is some back slum that is close 
 to the dwelling-places of the Anglo-Indian. 
 
 The position of the Eurasian is not an enviable 
 one, nor, sooth to say, is his character one of crystal- 
 line purity. Related to the English and native, he is 
 despised by both. The Englishman sees in him one 
 for whom the leaven of European blood has done 
 little but develop European vices upon a large stock 
 of native ones. The native sees in him a creature 
 poor as himself in physique and most other respects, 
 and one in whose blood there is the Faringhee taint. 
 He is, in short, little better than a self-constituted 
 helot, for whom there is no present or future, and 
 whose past is no very glorious retrospect. 
 
 Born in some Bethnal Green of India, and reared 
 in the gutter, the Eurasian grows to manhood. 
 Physically he is in no way superior to the native of 
 southern India. In complexion he may be as black 
 
234 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 as the darkest native, or of the olive tint of a 
 bilious Spaniard. Native in most of his ideas he has 
 adopted the dialect of the people around him as that 
 of his thoughts, and English is to him a language 
 only to be employed in transacting business with the 
 Anglo-Indian. Professedly, he is probably a Roman 
 Catholic, but the lower his position the more his 
 belief is impregnated with the superstitions of the 
 native. In his mode of life he is as a native in his 
 home, although he assumes the garb with the speech 
 of the Anglo-Indians when he comes into contact with 
 them. This brief description applies most directly to 
 the lowest of the Eurasian order, but it is true, to 
 some extent, of the great majority of the race, even 
 though their birth and education be not as humble 
 as we have described. The Eurasian who lives in a 
 hut in a narrow gully of Cossitollah (one of the mean- 
 est districts of Calcutta), and earns a bare subsistence 
 as a billiard-marker, or by some mysterious occupa- 
 tion of which the Anglo-Indian sees little or nothing, 
 is several degrees lower in the social scale than the 
 Eurasian clerk who is in a situation that gives him 
 10Z. a month. The former may have known no other 
 schooling than that of the street Arab. The latter has 
 possibly been taught something at an English school. 
 The billiard-marker, in the retirement of his hovel, 
 arrays himself in light linen garments differing little 
 from those of the Hindoo, and enjoys the society of 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 235 
 
 his equals over the family hubble-bubble (the hookah of 
 the native) . The clerk, or heranny, in his leisure hours 
 retains the costume of Europe, and probably satisfies 
 his longings for tobacco by indulgence in country- 
 made cheroots. In the social circle of one the tom- 
 tom (Indian drum) affords musical entertainment, 
 while in the society of the other this form of enjoy- 
 ment is knocked out of an ancient harpsichord. The 
 one is content to pass through life as a pedestrian, 
 the other aims at keeping his own buggy. But 
 these are merely social differences. The men are 
 the same apart from accident of fortune. Both 
 speak English with a strong Eurasian (chee chee) 
 accent ; and both are alike vain, frivolous, idle, false, , 
 and pusillanimous. 
 
 It is not because his modesty stands in his way 
 that the Eurasian occupies so low a position. Esti- 
 mated at the value he places upon himself he would 
 rank among the highest orders of humanity. His 
 whole life is one long effort to appear something more 
 and better than he is. The Eurasian clerk who has a 
 wife and family to support on a bare pittance, will 
 undergo much domestic discomfort and sore pinch- 
 ing to keep up appearances before the world. To 
 array his wife in a silk dress and then display her 
 (but more particularly the silk dress) by driving her 
 out upon the mall or course in his buggy, he will 
 submit to many a Lenten feast of pulse and rice. 
 
236 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 To possess an old jingling second-hand piano, upon 
 which no member of his family can play three con- 
 secutive notes in harmony, and from which not even 
 Madame Goddard could extract music, he will deny 
 himself many a comfort and not a few necessaries. 
 In short, although by no means averse from the 
 system of Epicurus, he will undergo the abstinence 
 of a Pythagorean in his home to parade abroad a 
 ridiculous affectation of being very much better off 
 than he is. 
 
 The same bizarre vanity appears in his conversa- 
 tion and writings. As we have said before, the 
 Eurasian who has never been west of Allahabad, and 
 who would vainly attempt to point out any ancestor 
 who had ever been in Great Britain, will talk of 
 England as * home,' just as though that were the land 
 of his birth and the home of his fathers. Primed 
 with a few facts from the columns of the ' Overland 
 Mail,' he will affect a knowledge of London life that 
 only comes to the regular flaneur after years of active 
 experience ; and very absurd are the errors into 
 which an overweening confidence in the resources of 
 the ' Overland Mail ' betrays him. It is told how one 
 Eurasian, when talking about going to England, 
 said that the first thing he should do upon reaching 
 London would be to report himself to the Brigade- 
 Major. Another Eurasian, accustomed to see 
 wealthy Anglo-Indians sit down to hermetically- 
 sealed salmon, peas, &c, could not understand that our 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 237 
 
 gracious Queen lived upon any other than hermetically- 
 sealed provisions. And as he will talk of things of 
 which he knows nothing, so also does he employ a 
 phraseology that he does not understand. No word 
 is too polysyllabled for him. To him the length of a 
 word is always a greater recommendation than its 
 applicability ; its true signification a matter of very 
 secondary consideration. And the letter of a half- 
 educated Eurasian often has the appearance of having 
 had words of five, six, and seven syllables sprinkled 
 over it out of a pepper-caster. 
 
 It is not that the Eurasian is a modest flower, 
 
 born to blush unseen. It is not that he has denied 
 
 justice to himself by hiding his light under a bushel. 
 
 Blushing is not in his way at all, and he is the last 
 
 person in the world to hide anything that he would 
 
 gain by exhibiting. He has been tried and found v 
 
 wanting. Experience has shown that in a civil 
 
 capacity he is, as a rule, uncertain, and often idle 
 
 and untrustworthy. His attendance to his duties is 
 
 irregular, and his performance of them perfunctory. 
 
 And the constantly recurring sickness in his family 
 
 by which he excuses his repeated absence can only 
 
 be accepted as the truth upon the supposition that 
 
 all the ills that humanity in general is heir to, are 
 
 visited upon his suffering belongings. He has been 
 
 tried as a soldier. Known, as he always was, to be 
 
 very little of the Bayard, the ranks of the army had 
 
 been closed to him as a fighting man, and until 
 
238 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 1857-8 his aspirations to wear a military uniform 
 could only be satisfied by his entering a N.I. regi- 
 ment as a bandsman. But in the mutiny year, 
 when every available fighting man was of the last 
 value to the British cause — when Pathans and 
 Beloochees were enlisted from among the wild and 
 independent tribes of the Punjab frontier — when the 
 loyal troops of Madras were called upon to face the 
 mutineers of the Bengal forces, and when English 
 adventurers, stray seamen, and loafers were enrolled 
 m a corps of yeomanry cavalry; in that troublous 
 time the attempt was made to create a soldiery out 
 of the Eurasion population, and in the ranks of the 
 East Indian regiment the half-caste had the oppor- 
 tunity of proving that he had the makings of a 
 warrior in him. He did nothing of the kind ; what 
 he principally proved was that he had the makings 
 of a mutineer in him, and the E.I. regiment being 
 disbanded, there departed the last chance of military 
 glory for the Eurasian. 
 
 Hanging on upon the outskirts of the Anglo- 
 Indian community, he has proved a failure as a 
 domestic servant. It is true that caste restrictions 
 do not stand in the way of his performing any house- 
 hold office, but his idleness and self-esteem do ; and 
 while entertaining him results in little, if any, 
 advantage as to quantity or quality of work, it costs 
 a great deal more than satisfies the native servant. 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 239 
 
 There are, of course, exceptional Eurasians to 
 whom the preceding remarks in no wise apply. 
 There are in the ranks of the uncovenanted service, 
 and among the non-official classes, individuals who 
 are trusted and respected as men of education and 
 position. But these are only the exceptions that 
 prove the rule; and there is an impassable chasm 
 between them and Eurasians such as those bandsmen 
 of native regiments who, wholly unmindful of 
 questions of nationality, marched into Delhi with 
 the mutinous sepoys and played the English national 
 anthem for the edification of the Mogul. There are 
 some few Eurasians who are allied to the English by 
 ties of thought and mutual regard. But the only tie 
 that unites the. majority of half-castes to the Anglo- 
 Indian is that of self-interest, and but for that 
 selfish bond, it would be a matter of little moment 
 to Eurasia generally whether Hindostan were ruled 
 by Christian or Moslem, Turk, Infidel, or Jew. 
 
 Leaving the Eurasians, it naturally occurs to us to 
 think of the native Christians. There is a strong 
 resemblance between the two classes in manj- 
 respects. The members of both sections profess, in 
 some form, the doctrines of the Christian faith. 
 They are alike in colour, and there is no little simi- 
 larity in their proclivities and their relations towards 
 the Anglo-Indian. 
 
 If the number of true converts in India bore any 
 
240 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 fair proportion to the extent of missionary exertions , 
 the native Christians would be told by tens of 
 thousands. The benevolent people of England who 
 provide shirt collars and trouser straps for the Anda- 
 manese, while their fellow-countrymen die of starva- 
 tion or perish of cold at their doorsteps — those 
 energetic propagandists who teach the Feejee to 
 read the Gospels, while thousands of their own race 
 cannot read the alphabet — these well-intentioned, if 
 misguided, people are to be found at their pious 
 work throughout Hindostan. Scattered about India 
 there are numerous missions — missions English, 
 American, and German — missions Protestant, Eoman 
 Catholic, Independent, and Baptist — missions of 
 many nations and several religious denominations. 
 In the crowded roads of the bazaar, and wherever 
 natives most do congregate, missionaries preach 
 and distribute tracts to the idle mob that forms their 
 open-air congregation. Attached to many of the 
 missions are small colonies of juvenile converts, who 
 are taught divine truths, fed, and clothed by the 
 religious societies. But, after all, an adult Christian 
 is almost as great a rarity in real life as a dead 
 donkey. Visiting the mission houses, one may see 
 thirty or forty youthful and dark-skinned Christians 
 performing the congregational share of the church 
 service (in the vernacular) ; or attend a pious tea- 
 party, at which these happy young proselytes give 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 241 
 
 vent to their exuberant spirits by chanting one of 
 Dr. Watts' hymns. But inscrutable mystery sur- 
 rounds the converts' adolescence. It cannot be 
 supposed that Christianity gives him perpetual 
 infancy, or that he invariably dies off before attain- 
 ing maturity ; and yet the full-grown convert is not 
 to be found in any proportion to the infant article. 
 He is not to be seen in any numbers where he would 
 naturally be looked for, in the service of Anglo- 
 Indians ; he does not appear as the skilled artisan or 
 simple labourer; he is rarely employed as a clerk, 
 and still more rarely as a cultivator or tradesman. 
 There are a few villages that are populated by 
 Christian communities, and the inhabitants of which 
 live upon the fruits of agriculture or as artisans and 
 traders ; but the existence of these is probably known 
 only to one Anglo- Indian in ten, and not one in a 
 hundred Anglo-Indians has ever actually seen them. 
 Too often the only specimens of full-grown converts 
 with whom one meets are peculiarised by the unplea- 
 sant characteristics of the lower class of Eurasians, 
 and not above making out of their religion capital 
 that they cannot or will not win by honest labour. 
 
 It may well be questioned whether the conversion 
 of the millions of India can ever be brought about 
 by such means as are adopted by the missionaries. 
 The enrolment under the Christian banner of a few 
 thousand natives of low caste or no caste has no 
 
 R 
 
242 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 influence upon the thoughts of the higher and better 
 educated classes. The people of the aboriginal tribes 
 and the lower sects of Hindoos have to make com- 
 paratively trivial sacrifices and renounce no very 
 strong belief when they adopt Christianity. But to 
 the high-caste Hindoo and to the Mahommedan, de- 
 sertion from the belief of his fathers means social 
 dishonour and the renunciation of tenets which, 
 however false, have been acquired by some amount of 
 study of the Shastras or Koran. In fact, to many 
 thinking men it appears that missionaries in India 
 have commenced their labours at the wrong end of 
 the social scale, and that failure must be the result 
 of a scheme that does not make of its converts useful 
 auxiliaries. 
 
 To some the Bengallee Baboo appears the possible 
 agent through whom the millions of Hindoos may be 
 at some time converted. At present young Bengal 
 is neutral as to his religion; neither Hindooism nor 
 Christianity can claim him. But having passed 
 through a phase of unbelief in which his old faith 
 and caste prejudices are thrown aside, he may be 
 induced to receive the doctrines of his rulers ; and the 
 example of one such educated and independent con- 
 vert would effect more than the teaching of all Watts* 
 hymns to mission children, or the distribution to an 
 illiterate and unthinking rabble of tons of tracts. 
 
 We have shown the relations between the Anglo- 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 243 
 
 Indian and those of the peoples of India with whom 
 he comes into immediate contact. It is not necessary 
 to dwell upon his intercourse with those who, though 
 dwelling in the country, can hardly be said to be of 
 it. The honest money-making and generous-hearted 
 Parsee, though his munificence gives hospitals and 
 other charitable institutions to India, is no more 
 allied to the natives than is the Frenchman of Chan- 
 dernagore or Pondicherry ; and neither of the fire- 
 worshipping Parsees nor of the impetuous sons of 
 France have we occasion now to speak. 
 
 But having seen what is the position of the Anglo- 
 Indian in respect of the natives — aboriginal, Hindoo, 
 and Mahommedan — we may very fitly consider the 
 anomalous tenure upon which England holds its 
 Eastern empire. The history of Europe is the history 
 of successive conquests; but wherever conquest in 
 Europe has been complete, the conquerors have iden- 
 tified themselves with their new possessions. Spa- 
 niards and Gauls became Roman citizens. The 
 barbarians of the German forests coalesced with the 
 peoples from whom they snatched empire. The 
 successors of William of Normandy adopted England 
 as their sole country. The Spanish and French 
 languages took up and absorbed the Latin element. 
 Saxons and Normans, after a time, spoke a common 
 tongue. And generally the dialect, laws, and customs 
 
 B 2 
 
244 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 of the conquerors and conquered in Europe have been 
 the natural sequence of a fusion of races. 
 
 There is no analogy between these European con- 
 quests and that in virtue of which we hold India. 
 The English have successfully colonised vast countries 
 elsewhere, and there can be little doubt as to the 
 permanency of Anglo-Saxon rule in North America 
 and Australia. But the settlers in America and 
 Australia, if they have not identified themselves with 
 the first peoples, have at least identified themselves 
 with the soil. The colony to which they have emi- 
 grated has become the land of their adoption. There 
 they have seen their children and grandchildren born 
 and reared around them, and there they have been 
 content to pass their days, without pining to return 
 to the country of their forefathers. 
 
 In India, colonisation such as this is to the Euro- 
 pean simply an impossibility. Nature and man are 
 both opposed to it. The life of the Englishman in 
 an Indian climate is an artificial one. It may be 
 extended over many years without any ill conse- 
 quences, or it may be jeopardised by a few months' 
 residence ; but it is not in any case such life as the 
 European cares for or upon which the European 
 thrives. It is true that the Englishman who goes to 
 India as a youth may become to a certain extent 
 acclimatised. He may in some instances retain 
 health and strength after forty years' unbroken 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTKY. 245 
 
 experience of that sunny clime. But he may never 
 hope to make it his home. He cannot rear his 
 children in the country ; he cannot look forward to 
 seeing his sons embarked in any Indian career other 
 than that of some sedentary and indoor occupation ; 
 and he knows that, settled in India, his race must 
 die out in the third generation, or be extended only 
 by the infusion of native blood and the deterioration 
 of his descendants to the level of the Eurasian. 
 
 It is generally believed that intermarriages of 
 Indian-born Europeans of pure descent are usually 
 childless in the third generation, and always so in 
 the fourth ; and if this point cannot be substantiated 
 by numerous examples in favour of such an opinion, 
 it is, at all events, not contradicted by counter- 
 experience, and it is corroborated by the known fact 
 that the country-born European even of the second 
 generation, if brought up in India, markedly suffers 
 from physical, if not mental, impairment. 
 
 While, on the one hand, the English cannot 
 hope to establish a line of Indian-born descendants 
 of pure blood, there is, on the other, nothing to 
 be hoped for by fusion with the people of the 
 country. Were the Eurasians not a standing 
 warning against any attempt at mixture of the 
 European and Indian races, there are obstacles at 
 present to such an alloy age in the people themselves. 
 No respectable native of caste or position would 
 
246 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 dream of giving his daughter in marriage to the 
 Faringhee ; and the alliance of the Englishman with 
 natives of the lower class would bring such contempt 
 upon him as would infallibly weaken his influence, 
 and might possibly shake his rule. A degenerate 
 race, such as the Eurasians, could not be expected to 
 hold the two hundred millions of India in subjec- 
 tion for an hour ; and yet it is only by becoming 
 such as they that the English conquest of Hindostan 
 can become, socially considered, a parallel to the 
 European conquests of Greek and Soman, Goth and 
 Frank. 
 
 It may be reasoned that, as to absorption into the 
 ranks of the conquered people, we are in no worse 
 position than the Mahommedans that preceded us. 
 But it must be remembered that the Mahommedans 
 were (like their Aryan predecessors) Asiatics, who 
 could accomodate themselves to the Indian climate. 
 And it may well be argued that, had the Mahomme- 
 dans absorbed the other tribes of India into their 
 ranks, or been bound to them by any strong ties, the 
 English would still be simple traders in the Mogul's 
 dominions with no greater territorial possessions 
 than a few strips of land about their factories, ware- 
 houses, and wharves. The absence of combination 
 among the people has been the opportunity of the 
 English. From first to last we have employed one 
 section of the natives as our allies against another. 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 247 
 
 With the Hindostanee Sepoys in our ranks, we 
 wrested the Khalsa from the Sikhs ; with the Sikhs 
 as our auxiliaries, we threw down the impotent old 
 man, who, as the puppet of the mutinous Hindosta- 
 nees, pretended to restore the Mogul rule. From the 
 time when Meer Jaffir sold the cause of the Bengal 
 Nawaub to Clive until the present, native bayonets 
 and native treachery have done more towards the 
 conquest of India than could ever be expected from 
 the most doughty deeds of England's thin red line. 
 And at that hour when native allies and native faith- 
 lessness to one another fail us, we may reasonably 
 expect the knell for our British Indian empire. 
 
 The Anglo-Indian is, in fact, one of a garrison 
 which is always looking forward to the time when it 
 will be relieved from foreign service and return to 
 England. India is held by successive generations of 
 Englishmen that take no root in the country ; and 
 while, from the Governor- General to the full private 
 of a British regiment, nearly every Briton in India 
 looks upon the time he spends there as one of exile, 
 the Englishman is from the native point of view a 
 foreigner who comes from the unknown West to 
 seek that fortune which he cannot win in his own 
 land. As far as it is in him to appreciate virtues 
 that he does not think it obligatory to practise, the 
 native respects the truthfulness and plain-dealing of 
 the dominant race. Little as he has in common 
 
248 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 with, the Anglo-Indian in sentiment, the native who 
 is subject to British rule ordinarily seeks justice at a 
 tribunal presided over by an English judge in pre- 
 ference to that of a brother native. But it is by no 
 means certain that the majority of British Indian 
 subjects prefer British rule as a whole to that of the 
 Mahommedan or Hindoo. To the weak and lowly 
 our laws give protection of property and person 
 unknown under native government. Rich and poor 
 are equally regarded, and, as the natives express it, 
 the tiger and the sheep may drink at one ghat. But 
 then, unfortunately, the native opinion that has the 
 greatest weight is that of the tiger section of the 
 community, to which equality is not an unmixed 
 advantage. To the millions of the lower orders it is 
 a matter of secondary consideration who are the 
 rulers ; the primary, and often the sole, thought to 
 them is how to provide the simple meal of to-day 
 that will give them strength for the morrow's toil ; 
 and they leave political discussion to those classes 
 that have leisure for it. To the upper classes, equa- 
 lisation by law means the deprivation of many of 
 their privileges. 
 
 Nor, though our laws give equal rights, do they 
 give equal redress of wrongs. In the criminal courts 
 the poor man may obtain protection or reparation. 
 But in the civil courts law is an expensive commodity 
 that the lower orders can rarely indulge in. And to 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 249 
 
 all classes our legal procedure appears dilatory when 
 compared with the summary process of native justice. 
 Under Hindoo and Mahommedan rule an elastic lex 
 non scrijpta meted out very different awards to high 
 and low. The nawaub who murdered a slave escaped 
 with a mulct of a few rupees, while the slave who 
 assaulted a nawaub paid for his crime with the hand 
 that struck or the head that conceived the blow. 
 But justice, such as was to be had, was dealt out at 
 once and at little cost ; and the executive, where its 
 own interests were unconcerned, did not go out of its 
 way to interfere between man and man. It is true 
 that the roads were infested by gangs of robbers, 
 and that every man held his life and property upon a 
 precarious footing ; but, then, justice did not always 
 assume the sole right of affording redress, and every 
 man, to a certain extent, was allowed to settle his 
 disputes after his own fashion. This to the native 
 was a privilege that compensated for much of the 
 insecurity in which he lived. 
 
 Again, our laws have interfered with some of those 
 quasi-religious customs that the native held dear. 
 The faithful Hindoo widow, stimulated by ganja (a 
 preparation of hemp) may not ascend the pyre and 
 by the rites of suttee destroy herself in honour of her 
 deceased lord. The pious Hindoo mother may no 
 longer sacrifice any of her superfluous offspring by 
 casting them into the waters around Saugor. Fanatic 
 
250 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 or intoxicated Hindoos are not permitted the 
 religious prerogatives of casting themselves beneath 
 the wheels of Juggernaut's car or being swung, 
 hooked through the back, from the lofty pole of the 
 churruck. And to none is it allowed to make of their 
 fellow- creatures marketable articles and household 
 slaves. In effect we have over-ridden, without 
 removing, native prejudices. And although in our 
 codes we have absorbed much of Hindoo and 
 Mahommedan law — though, as to native rights of 
 inheritance, marriage, adoption, and many other 
 subjects, we have consulted and adhered to native 
 custom — it is very questionable whether the English 
 law engrafted upon that of Hindoo and Mahomme- 
 dan is not, in the opinion of the native, little better 
 than an unwelcome excrescence. 
 
 That the natives view British rule with any warm 
 feelings of discontent can hardly be affirmed. Upon 
 all material points the English Government has been 
 tolerant, and with few exceptions it has been just. 
 But there is no sympathy between the rulers and the 
 people of the country ; and it may well be assumed 
 that the natives are satisfied with the existing regime, 
 mainly because they do not know how to throw it off 
 or where to look for a better. 
 
 There arises, then, the natural question — is our 
 tenure of Tndia a temporary one, the end of which is 
 not afar off? Ratiocination from historical prece- 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 251 
 
 dent leads us to reply in the affirmative ; and it is 
 one of the dogmas of English rulers that India is 
 held in trust for the Indians, to be made over to the 
 natives when they are in a position to do justice to 
 the charge. But then occurs a dilemma. It is by 
 no means clear to whom the guardianship should be 
 made over — Mahommedans, Hindoos, and aborigines 
 all having some claim to succeed us ; and it is 
 still less perspicuous that any or all of these claim- 
 ants will ever be in a position to undertake the 
 responsibilities of government. While the tribes of 
 India hold themselves aloof from one another, there 
 is little prospect of British rule being overthrown by 
 force. Day by day the martial element that might 
 evict us is dying out. But if there is little prospect 
 of the people ever being in a position to oust the 
 English from the land, there is as little hope that 
 they will be able to withhold the Indian empire from 
 the grasp of other foreign invaders ; and it were 
 worse than useless to hand over to the Indians a 
 possession that would be immediately snatched from 
 them by conquerors possibly less tolerant and just 
 than those who now hold it. 
 
 Passing over the consideration of invasion from 
 without, let us see how far the relinquishment of 
 India to the natives is feasible. Gwalior, Hyderabad, 
 Cashmere, and other pseudo-independent states may 
 be cited as examples of tolerably successful govern- 
 
252 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 merit ; and from the ministers of those principalities 
 might be selected some worthy to assist in the 
 counsels of any sovereign. But the potentates who 
 rule over these states are all kept in order by a 
 British resident, and there have been many instances 
 of what misrule would appear but for this wholesome 
 check, and how much bad government could exist in 
 spite of it. To the greed of Gholab Sing it is due 
 that the shawl manufacture of Cashmere has been 
 well nigh annihilated. By the strong representa- 
 tions of the British resident only was the Nizam of 
 Hyderabad induced to retain the services of Salar 
 Jung — the wisest and most liberal-minded minister 
 the Deccan possesses. And, were it necessary, many 
 other cases in point might be quoted in corroboration 
 of this view. 
 
 There are others than Salar Jung who might be 
 trusted to guide their sovereign ; but the difficulty afc 
 present is to find the sovereign who would be guided. 
 There are men who could frame wise laws for the 
 people, but one looks in vain for an adequate force 
 for the administration of the laws made. In the 
 ranks of the uncoven anted civil service many natives 
 have been, and are, employed in subordinate 
 positions, and the feeling is strong to give them a 
 wider field, and greater opportunities in this line. 
 "Recently some few natives have passed the ordeal of 
 competitive examination and entered the covenanted 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 253 
 
 civil service. But while the latter (an Anglicised 
 class that has acquired much of its education and 
 thought in England) have had no chance of distin- 
 guishing themselves, the former have made little use 
 of such opportunities as they have enjoyed. As 
 a subordinate judge, magistrate, or police officer, 
 the native uncovenanted has ordinarily retained the 
 manners, customs, and worse proclivities, with the 
 language of his countrymen. If his brother natives 
 have not belied him, he has been too frequently cor- 
 rupt. He has sold justice and himself for a few 
 pieces of silver, and his relations with his English 
 superiors have too often been marked by that sugges- 
 tio falsi, suppressio veri which characterises Asiatic 
 diplomacy. As an employe in the lower official class, 
 and as a police officer, he has signally failed. The 
 venality and turpitude of the native amla of our 
 courts have long been bywords; and to the ineffi- 
 ciency, dishonesty, and banefulness of the native 
 daroghas and jemadars is attributable that police 
 reform which, out of very sorry materials, aims at 
 creating a constabulary similar in its principles to 
 that of Ireland. 
 
 There are exceptions, and great ones, to. these 
 remarks. A few honest and respected natives have 
 risen to high judicial office and held a proud position 
 before all men. Among the pleaders and other non- 
 official classes there are able and honourable men. 
 
 IX 
 
 
254 • LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 But we repeat our doubt as to there being such an 
 amount of native ability combined with probity as 
 would be anything like equal to the good govern- 
 ment of two hundred millions of people, and we may 
 venture to presume that many generations will come 
 and go before these qualifications are to be found in 
 sufficient quantity. 
 
 Lastly, as to the races to which India is to be con- 
 signed. British India, as we have known it, com- 
 prises many kingdoms, most of which we found 
 subject to the sway of the Mogul ; are we to restore 
 the Mogul empire to the Mahommedans, giving to 
 the peoples the imperfect centralisation of one race of 
 conquerors, instead of the more perfect imperial 
 system of another? Or are we to parcel off the 
 empire into states, and give to the Carnatic, Mysore, 
 Bengal, Oude and the rest those sovereigns who 
 appear most entitled to them ? Or are we to place 
 India under some form of government that will 
 fairly represent all the races that dwell therein? 
 These are questions difficult enough to reply to 
 now. But if we only cast off our guardianship of 
 India when the people are prepared to receive it, 
 this difficulty may have disappeared. The different 
 races may then have become welded together — the 
 distinctions between aborigines, Mahommedans and 
 Hindoos be things of an unenlightened past — and 
 the people of the mixed tribes be in the full enjoy- 
 
THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. 255 
 
 ment of that high order of civilisation and belief 
 towards which Young Bengal has commenced the 
 ascent. All this may be — only the time when such 
 a Utopian condition can be anticipated for India is 
 rather remote. 
 
256 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 
 
 Among the many disadvantages under which India 
 labours, not the least is that of having no adequate 
 expression of public opinion. As far as the Anglo- 
 Indian community is concerned, this is natural 
 enough. The official element (including those in 
 military employ) exceeds the non-official in point of 
 numbers, is more generally distributed over the 
 country, and is as to most subjects in a better 
 position for forming an opinion. But it is not 
 natural that the two hundred millions of the subject 
 races should have no voice that is audible or in- 
 telligible to the ruling power : and yet, to a con- 
 siderable extent, this is the case. 
 
 There is a native press to be sure. Hindoo and 
 Mahommedan journals in Oordoo, Hindee, Bengallee, 
 and other native dialects are printed and published. 
 A few papers in the native interest and edited by 
 natives are brought out in the English language. 
 Lengthy editorials full of Asiatic allegory and 
 warmth of colouring affect to treat upon matters of 
 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 257 
 
 public interest. But, after all, these specimens of 
 journalism are in no great degree the exponents of 
 the hopes and fears of the many-headed ; they do not 
 echo that vox populi which is also vox Dei ; and it 
 by no means invariably happens that the articles in 
 them represent the real thoughts or wishes of any 
 important section of the native classes. 
 
 It must be admitted that the native press has 
 within the last few years undergone much improve- 
 ment, although, at the same time, further improve- 
 ment is possible and eminently desirable. Twenty 
 years ago the native editor appeared to be wholly 
 unable to distinguish between the expression of an 
 opinion unfavourable to some public question, and 
 the expression of what was treasonable or libellous ; 
 and even at the present time it is felt by Government 
 to be necessary to watch with a jealous eye the 
 broadsheets that emanate from the native printing 
 press. The native journal, even in its improved 
 character, is still too capricious to be regarded as 
 perfectly safe. It has rarely any political stand- 
 point or particular school of ethics or policy. It 
 veers about, a literary weathercock, at the mercy of 
 every change of wind, and now as adulatory and 
 subservient as the ' Morning Post,' is this day week 
 as seditious as the ' Nation,' and a month hence as 
 scandalous as the ' Queen's Messenger.' 
 
 As an example of the manner in which native 
 
 s 
 
258 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 journalism sometimes deals with a subject of general 
 interest, may be cited the 'Nil Durpan,' a satire 
 published some years ago when the great indigo 
 question was agitating the minds of the Bengal 
 officials, the planters, and that portion of the public 
 which was interested therein. Briefly stated, the 
 indigo difficulty was this. For some time the market 
 value of every other product had been rising, while 
 the price paid for the indigo plant had continued 
 stationary. Eice, pulse, sugar-cane, or any other 
 crop was more remunerative to the cultivator than 
 indigo, as far as the money payment made by the 
 factory was concerned. But the planter reimbursed 
 his cultivators in other forms than that of money. 
 He leased out land to them at a rental below the 
 rate prevailing in the neighbourhood. He advanced 
 money to them at little or no interest, while the 
 lowest interest taken by the native money lenders 
 was twenty-four per cent. He allowed their cattle 
 to graze upon his broad pastures without levying the 
 customary grazing dues ; and thus, by indirect and 
 esoteric methods of remuneration made up for the 
 insufficiency of that which was direct and most 
 tangible. The system was indubitably rotten, and 
 reform was necessary. There was every opportunity 
 for the native press of pointing out what was wrong 
 and suggesting the needful remedies. And healthy 
 satire might well have been employed in the con- 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 259 
 
 troversy. But by the native section of the fourth 
 estate this opportunity was availed of to little pur- 
 pose, or only to a purpose that was utterly misguided 
 and mischievous ; and the most marked production 
 of this literary guild was a disgracefully scurrilous 
 drama called the c Nil Durpan ; ' or, Indigo Mirror. 
 This work of some would-be Hindoo Juvenal failed 
 altogether to touch upon the salient points of the 
 indigo complication. There was nowhere about it 
 any indication that the writer had desired to solve 
 the difficulty and reconcile the conflicting interests 
 of planter and cultivators. The work was wholly 
 and solely a gross libel on the Anglo-Indian class — 
 official and non-official — male and female — that 
 would have been more consistently styled the ' Im- 
 morals of Chowringee ' than the Mirror of Indigo, and 
 was better suited to cremation at the hands of the 
 common hangman than any known literary purpose. 
 The omission of native journals to represent the 
 public does not, however, result from the incompe- 
 tency of the writers alone. To a great extent it is 
 the consequence of the paucity of native readers, for 
 with the people of India, newspaper reading is a 
 pursuit almost entirely confined to a select few of the 
 urban communities. It is not that the rural popu- 
 lation cannot read, but that the aspirations of the 
 village readers in the direction of letters do not 
 extend beyond the few simple volumes that have 
 
 s 2 
 
260 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 satisfied the literary requirements of many genera- 
 tions. To them the affairs of the village and its 
 immediate surroundings are everything, and the 
 matters that disturb the unknown world beyond 
 nothing. Many a villager never, during a lifetime, 
 goes beyond a mile or two from the house where he 
 was born, and many a village with some pretensions 
 as to size is never visited by a postman, with letter 
 or paper, from year's end to year's end, or from 
 decade to decade. So insignificant is the commu- 
 nication kept up by the rural population through 
 the medium of the post, that the arrival at any 
 village of the dak-walla (letter-carrier) with a letter 
 is an event to be remembered and talked of, just as 
 though the postman were a biped marvellous as the 
 Dodo, or a post- letter a phenomenon as rare as an 
 aerolite. The general public (native) does not care 
 for letter- writing, and does not believe implicitly in 
 the security of Her Majesty's mails. Whatever the 
 native has to communicate is generally conveyed by 
 word of mouth, and this system of viva voce tele- 
 graphy supersedes the use of newspapers. News 
 that possesses any general interest spreads among 
 the people with singular rapidity, malgre the absence 
 of complete postal arrangements and widely-circula- 
 ting journals. Rumour is often busy with intelli- 
 gence upon some point in the native part of a town 
 before authentic information about it has reached 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 261 
 
 the European quarter. By the passing on from 
 hand to hand of a chupattie (cake of unleavened 
 bread), or a branch, the natives can convey a message 
 with a celerity far exceeding that of the post. But, 
 after all, there is no public feeling exhibited by the 
 millions of India upon any but exceptional subjects, 
 and the native newspaper that can boast of a circula- 
 tion of 500 copies a week, must be considered as 
 occupying a very satisfactory position in the fourth 
 estate. 
 
 There is an Anglo-Indian press of more pretension, 
 but it can hardly be said that this represents a great 
 public voice. Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay send 
 forth two or three dailies each. From the capitals 
 of other provinces come journals published twice or 
 thrice a week. And from Allahabad and Serampore 
 are issued the ' Pioneer ' and ' Friend of India ? — 
 journals of an imperial character that are read by 
 the ruling race throughout the land. The printing 
 press is busy in the interests of the Anglo- Indian. 
 The exiled Englishman is provided with such news 
 and advertisements as may entertain, enlighten or 
 serve him. But there is no vox populi that speaks 
 through the Anglo-Indian press, or as the exponent 
 of which any Anglo-Indian journal takes its stand. 
 
 It is true that now and again the non-official voice 
 may be faintly heard or raised against the action of 
 Government. In Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, 
 
262 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 non- official communities have existence and weight, 
 and some Hampden of these independent bodies 
 occasionally makes the local paper the Edgehill upon 
 which he fights out the question of a tax upon 
 income — a heavy impost upon hides or jute — or some 
 such parallel of the tonnage and poundage dues that 
 set England a-blaze. A few stragglers from the 
 Anglo-Indian non-official ranks, settled about the 
 Moffussil as indigo planters and zemindars, may at 
 odd times bestir themselves in print when some 
 •clause of the rent act or law of contract operates to 
 -their detriment. But upon many of the great 
 subjects affecting the rule of the millions of India 
 there is no public voice raised by the independent 
 Anglo-Indian class, and, indeed, little enough interest 
 felt. As an instance of this indifference may be cited 
 the singular absence of curiosity exhibited in respect 
 of the proceedings of the legislative council. In the 
 chamber of that august body are framed laws that 
 may be of vital importance — blessings or curses — to 
 all the dwellers in the land, but the Anglo-Indian 
 public cares little for hearing the debates of the legis- 
 lators at first hand, and is quite satisfied, if it can be 
 said to care so far, to read them at some subsequent 
 period in the ' Government Gazette,' or (should they 
 be reported, which does not necessarily follow) in the 
 columns of a newspaper. There is no crowded 
 strangers'-gallery where an eager audience hangs 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 263 
 
 upon the words of the law framers : there are not 
 always reporters to record every syllable that falls 
 from the lips of the speakers ; ( cheers,' and cries of 
 'hear, hear' never disturb the monotony of the 
 legislative performances ; and the whole affair as 
 being decorous, tame, and highly uninteresting is 
 avoided by all Anglo-Indians who are not compelled 
 to give their presence. 
 
 There are, as we said before, Anglo-Indian news- 
 papers, but there is no corresponding body of inde- \ 
 pendent literary men to write for them, and 
 Government servants of many degrees, as often as 
 not, constitute the great majority of the staff upon 
 which the Anglo-Indian editor depends. At one 
 time public officials were forbidden to write for the 
 press, and nominally the practice is still inhibited, 
 but in spite of rule, officers civil and military have 
 contributed, and do contribute, largely to journalism. 
 And where contributors to the Anglo-Indian press 
 are not Government servants they are generally 
 volunteers, as it were, in the literary ranks — guerillas 
 who fight only in the cause that interests them — and 
 unpaid allies who take up arms only when it suits 
 them and they have nothing better to do. 
 
 Even as to its responsible editor an Anglo-Indian 
 paper is not always free from official influence. 
 Instances have been known of a leading journal being 
 edited by a Government chaplain or a junior civilian, 
 
264 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 and, though nobody may have questioned the ability 
 with which the editorial duties were discharged by 
 these amateur journalists, it may have been very 
 naturally doubted whether the papers conducted by 
 them could be as independent and unfettered as 
 might be wished. On the other hand independence 
 is sometimes gained by the sacrifice of ability and 
 respectabilty. In India it appears to be the fond 
 hallucination of every half-educated or quarter- 
 educated Anglo-Indian that, if he fail in everything 
 else, he can edit a paper ; and the adventurer who as 
 clerk, shopkeeper, pleader, planter, or what not, has 
 been unable to form his own opinion to any purpose, 
 is quite ready, as an editor, to guide the opinions of 
 other, people. With a limited conception of the laws 
 of orthography and syntax, and a happy-go-lucky- 
 slapdash way of writing loud-sounding emptiness 
 about things that he does not understand ; and 
 armed with a book of classical quotations in langua- 
 ges that he never studied — two or three books of re- 
 ference — and a well thumbed ' Webster's Dictionary,' 
 he is prepared to deliver his dictum upon art, science, 
 trade, state polity, theology, the strategy of war and 
 the amenities of peace. Nothing comes amiss to him 
 or finds him unequal to the necessary quantity of 
 written matter. Utterly ignorant of simple fractions, 
 he will analyse the most abstruse calculations of a 
 Colenso : barely knowing the difference between a 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 265 
 
 railway sleeper and an architrave, he will point out 
 the errors of a Brunei : and sublimely innocent as to 
 the language, literature and history of ancient 
 Greece (or any other country as far as that goes) he 
 will toss you off a minute and depreciatory criticism 
 of the Juventus Mundi or last translation of Homer 
 with as much confidence as though he had been the 
 boon companion of Ulysses and an intimate acquain- 
 tance of every man, woman, and child within the 
 camps of Priam and Agamemnon. 
 
 The leading journals — those to which we have 
 alluded as the productions of the several Anglo- 
 Indian capitals — are ordinarily conducted by editors 
 of education and position. But even these occupants 
 of the editorial chair have often commenced their 
 career in one of the Indian services, and have the 
 official leaven, the bias and prejudice of soldier or 
 civilian, still strong within them. Au reste, these 
 first-class Anglo- Indian prints are to a great extent 
 dependent upon the official world for their supply of 
 news and leading articles. Jones, a magistrate and 
 collector, who feels strongly on the subject of tenant 
 right, sends essays upon proprietary titles, prescriptive 
 rights of occupancy, the comfort of the peasantry 
 who enjoy the land system of Belgium, and the 
 misery of the English labourer and Irish cottier 
 under the farming system of Great Britain. Brown, 
 who is in the political department, contributes his 
 
266 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 opinions upon the government of independent 
 States, the advance of Russia upon the confines of 
 British India, or some other subject of a diplomatic 
 character. Robinson, of the Department of Public 
 Works or some financial department, directs the 
 public (as far as there is a public to be directed) as 
 to the Budget, and points out errors in the manage- 
 ment of revenue and expenditure. And Ram 
 Chunder Ghose, a writer in the Commissioner's office, 
 gives the local news of the little Peddlington in 
 which he lives. 
 
 As for the smaller journals published in the 
 Moffussil we can compare them with nothing known 
 to English readers except, perhaps, the * Eatanswill 
 Gazette and Independent.' The 6 Bubblinuggur 
 Scarifier ' (we need hardly say that this title is as- 
 sumed) with a circulation of forty-five copies (twenty- 
 three of which are given gratuitously and eleven not 
 paid for) is a literary anomaly whose existence can 
 only be accounted for upon the assumption that it is 
 necessary that everything affirmed by the ' Jam -jam- 
 pore Scourge ' should be contradicted. The ' Scari- 
 fier ' has been known to pass into the hands of three 
 editors in one week (although only published twice 
 in seven days). It has been edited by a litterateur 
 whose personal reminiscences embrace a month's 
 detention in jail, a ad several appearances in a 
 prominent position before the criminal courts of the 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 267 
 
 country. It has been edited by Englishmen, by 
 Eurasians, and by Baboos. It has adopted as its 
 policy the hearty abuse of everything and everybody. 
 And it has tried the course suggested by the 
 melancholy Jacques of finding good in everything 
 (always excepting the ' Jamjampore Scourge ') and 
 lavished eulogy upon everybody, save the editor of 
 the rival journal. But its fortunes have never 
 prospered, and its subscribers have rarely extended 
 beyond those few weak-minded people who have 
 preferred taking in the paper to being abused by it ; 
 and thus paid a literary black-mail for immunity 
 from scurrilous attack. 
 
 This may appear to be an over highly coloured 
 description, but, though it is by no means applicable 
 to all Moffussil journals, it is accurate enough to one 
 at all events, and, with a few modifications, might 
 be fitted to half a dozen. But let us see what are 
 the contents of an average specimen of the Moffussil 
 paper. 
 
 In the first place there is an editorial — perhaps 
 there may be more than one. The leader may be 
 devoted to the purpose of demonstrating that 
 everything said by some other paper is incorrect — 
 without attempting to show what is not so ; or it may 
 relate to some purely local matter — the high prices 
 of articles of food in the bazaar, or the lighting of 
 the principal thoroughfare of the town with kerosene 
 
268 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 lamps (gas being unknown out of Calcutta, Madras, 
 and Bombay) ; or it may be a pirated essay, obviously 
 plagiarised from another source, upon some subject 
 of wider interest. 
 
 Then come scraps that are more or less personal, 
 in the following styles : — ' It is rumoured that our 
 respected Deputy Commissioner is about to be 
 promoted to a Commissionership.' 'We hear that 
 there is every probability that the Judge of Budge- 
 budge will proceed to Europe on furlough at 
 the end of the cold weather. His successor may 
 possibly be Mr. Blank Dash.' ' We beg to remind 
 our readers that the amateurs of the 155th Hussars 
 will this evening give their dramatic performances 
 of "Box and Cox" and "As Like as Two Peas." ' 
 ' Yesterday afternoon a horrible and double murder 
 was committed in the Chandni Chowk. A mother 
 and her young child (a girl aged three) were first 
 killed (their heads being literally beaten in by some 
 heavy instrument) and then thrown down a dry well 
 fifty feet in depth. The perpetrator of this terrible 
 crime is suspected to be the husband and father of 
 the two victims, and jealousy is assigned as the 
 motive of the dreadful crime.' Possibly in the next 
 number these scraps are turned to account again, 
 served up as a rechauffe by a contradictory process. 
 Thus, 'Rumour erred in saying that our Deputy 
 Commissioner was to be promoted, for it proves that, 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 269 
 
 owing to some mismanagement of his office, he is to 
 be degraded.' ' There is no truth in the report that 
 the Judge of Budgebudge is going home on furlough. 
 That officer is only now coming out and is not 
 expected at Budgebudge before the end of the 
 month. Mr. Blank Dash, who was named as his 
 successor, retired from the service three weeks ago.' 
 ' We were wrong in our statement about the 
 Amateur Theatricals of Tuesday last ; the perform- 
 ance was fixed for Wednesday ; the corps dramatique 
 was that of the 132nd Foot, not the Hussars ; and the 
 pieces selected were the " School for Scandal " and 
 " Othello," not " Box and Cox " and " As Like as Two 
 Peas." ' ' Upon further inquiry it proves that no mur- 
 der occurred in the Chandni Chowk on Monday last. 
 The facts are, that a girl aged eleven fell into a well 
 and was followed by her mother, who gallantly 
 jumped in after her. They were extricated with little 
 difficulty as the water was within a few feet of the 
 surface of the ground, and the only ill consequence 
 of the accident was a slight bruise on the mother's 
 head which came into collision with, the side of the 
 well. The statement that the husband of the 
 mother was the suspected criminal has injured 
 nobody, for the woman has been a widow for ten 
 years.' 
 
 Law reports serve to fill one or two columns; 
 though why they should be supposed to amuse any- 
 
270 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 body it is difficult to understand. The legal en- 
 tanglement involved in the civil appeal, No. 27,363, 
 of the Agra High Court — Eamjai Dass (Plaintiff) 
 Appellant, v. Sanki Beebee (Defendant) Eespondent, 
 an appeal which relates to the inheritance of several 
 thousand acres — is hardly likely to be read by any 
 one except a judicial officer, and he can read it in 
 the selected reports with far more certainty of having 
 the right version than he can anticipate in the 
 newspaper edition. There is possibly something 
 more inviting about a good sensational criminal 
 case, such as the trial of Beharee Lall for the 
 murder of half a dozen of his nearest relations, or 
 the indictment of a gang of mild Hindoos for 
 Thuggee, poisoning, housebreaking and arson ; but, 
 then, the Anglo-Indian hardly recognises the value 
 of these thrilling incidents of real life among the 
 natives, and infinitely prefers those imaginary 
 horrors that are so very much more graphically 
 depicted in some of the novels of the period. 
 
 Critiques of amateur theatricals and descriptions 
 of public entertainments occur exceptionally, and 
 the events that give rise to them are highly prized 
 windfalls to the hard-pushed editor. The tone of 
 these productions depends a good deal upon circum- 
 stances. If the editor has received tickets for good 
 seats ; if the amateur performers are subscribers to 
 the paper; if the printing work, programmes, &c, 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 271 
 
 have been given to the press from which the journal 
 is sent forth ; if, in short, the editor is well disposed 
 towards the players, a theatrical criticism ordinarily 
 consists of nothing but a string of panegyrics. The 
 manager, the writer of the prologue, the scene- 
 painter, the actors, the scene-shifters, the orchestra, 
 and the man who attended to the lights, simply 
 managed, wrote, painted, acted, scene-shifted, 
 fiddled, and lamp-lighted to perfection. Every one 
 of the performers, from the leading comedian down 
 to the footman with a line and a half to speak, might 
 be a Charles Mathews or a Sothern, were it not 
 that the versatility of his genius makes him also a 
 rival of Phelps, Toole, Blondin, David James, and 
 the only Leon. We are told that Colonel A.'s 
 rendering of the part of Sir Anthony Absolute was 
 perfect in delivery, look, and byplay; that Mr. B. 
 as Captain Absolute was equally unexceptionable in 
 byplay, look, and delivery, that Captain C. as Bob 
 Acres, kept the audience in such roars of laughter as 
 could only be produced by one upon whom the 
 mantle of Liston had fallen ; and that everybody else 
 in the cast was similarly superior to any but the 
 few and far between planets of the professional 
 stage. But if the players be not in the good books 
 of the editor, spots, and sometimes very large and 
 dark spots, are discovered on the discs of these stars. 
 The critic is grudging of praise, and instead of 
 
272 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 enthusiastic cries of euge, euge, vilipends the unhappy 
 mimes in terms that exhibit no inclination of such 
 mildness as hinting a fault and hesitating dislike. 
 The descriptions of other public entertainments — 
 banquets, balls, and what not — offer fewer facilities 
 for lavish praise or vituperative condemnation, but 
 they afford opportunities for a considerable amount 
 of florid writing which are gladly seized. 
 
 Lastly there are rambling accounts of the doings 
 at out- stations — probably written by a keranny in 
 some office, or by some Baboo in a subordinate 
 position under Government. The remuneration for 
 these chronicles of news is not very munificent. 
 On a first class paper it may be three-halfpence a 
 line ; more frequently it is only a free copy of the 
 paper. But it can hardly be said that the work 
 supplied is worth much more than the price paid for 
 it. 
 
 At the best the English composition of the native 
 is not modelled on the style of a Macaulay or any 
 known British classic. Even when the Baboo sits 
 down to manufacture a leader which shall appear in 
 a foremost position of the paper and full sized type, 
 the result is not ordinarily any very striking one. 
 What he produces when he sets himself to a little 
 easy writing, with no higher object than discussing 
 local news, may be easily imagined. Let our readers 
 judge for themselves what the Baboo's leaders are 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 273 
 
 like. We give them an average specimen taken 
 from a native Calcutta paper, the ' Indian : * 
 
 Since the very introduction of the railway system into 
 India has the cry against railway accidents never ceased, and 
 yet our paternal Government, with the most sublime in- 
 difference, is enacting the part of a mere looker-on. As to 
 the directors, they will never trouble their heads by looking 
 into these trivial matters, as long as their purses are annually 
 well replenished. Who is to look after these accidents ? The 
 Government won't interfere, and the directors won't interfere ; 
 who will then ? Not a single day passes on which we don't 
 hear of some serious and fatal railway accidents. How many 
 lives are thus lost annually? Are any statistics of the 
 number of accidental deaths by railway collisions, &c. 
 published by the railway authorities? And if so, don't 
 they tremble at the immense loss of life occasioned by their 
 carelessness? Where are they who are thus untimely cut 
 off by the culpable carelessness of their fellow-beings ? What 
 becomes of the widows and orphans they leave behind them ? 
 They shall appear again, one and all, before the Omnipotent 
 Tribunal ; and you, too, ye directors, you too shall have to 
 appear there to answer, if you can, the dread query that shall 
 be put to each of you all, ' Cain, what hast thou done with 
 thy brother ?' 
 
 You are guilty morally, if not legally, of murder. Clear 
 yourselves if you can. Too, too long have we remained 
 silent, fearing lest we should be made to suffer the fate of our 
 contemporary, the ' Hindoo Patriot,' anent the famous Sham- 
 nuggur accident case. Railway accidents are daily occurring 
 in some part or other of India, and daily are men suddenly 
 hurled into the presence of their Maker unprepared. Ap- 
 parently none are responsible for all this needless waste of 
 
 T 
 
274 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 valuable human life. But there are means by which these 
 most lamentable accidents can be prevented, partly, if not 
 wholly. 
 
 The means of prevention the directors know full well. But 
 have they ever tried to bring their knowledge into any 
 practical use? If not, why have not they done so? Are 
 they not to suffer for thus neglecting to do what they are 
 morally and legally bound to do ? We impeach them before 
 the civilised world of having caused the death of innumerable 
 lives by their unpardonable carelessness. Is this the sort of 
 example they set before their employes, and is it a wonder 
 that they imitate their masters? When, O when, will the 
 time come when we shall hear of railway accidents no more ? 
 Will the railway authorities pay the slightest attention to the 
 universal cry raised against this annual slaughter of the 
 innocents ? When shall we have the good fortune to hear 
 that they have taken the right steps in the right direction ? 
 
 1 But what is done can't be helped,' is a saying the truth of 
 which one cannot but admit. Let bygones be bygones. 
 
 But will the authorities, we mean the railway authorities, 
 arouse themselves from the profound slumber in which they 
 are lounging ? When might we expect better days, and sing 
 to the tune of ' Kooch perwani (never mind) / good time 
 coming ? ' 
 
 This is the rhodomontade in which the native 
 indulges when he wishes to write an article that shall 
 be convincing, satirical, and generally overwhelm- 
 ing. It is just in his line to impeach the railway 
 authorities before the civilised world of causing the 
 death of innumerable lives. With a happy disregard 
 alike of facts and figures, he will exaggerate an 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 275 
 
 occasional railway accident into the daily slaughter 
 of a hecatomb of innocent passengers. With a 
 rhetorical flourish that means nothing, he will ask 
 where these slaughtered ones are at present. And 
 having threatened the authorities with the Nemesis 
 that must avenge their evil doings, he will suddenly 
 drop from the agony point to the lower range of 
 philosophical and resigned contemplation, and, 
 taking his stand there, declare that what is done 
 can't be helped, and does not, after all, very much 
 signify. 
 
 But the out-station or Moffussil gossip of the 
 Indian newspaper is not written in this ambitious 
 style. The Baboo of the Deputy Magistrate's court 
 does not habitually impeach somebody before the 
 civilised world, or aim shafts barbed with satire at 
 a ' paternal government.' He satisfies himself by 
 telling the civilised world what is going on, or might 
 be going on, about the neighbourhood where the 
 writer lives. 
 
 Anything does for the Indian penny-a-liner's 
 subject, and the small beer of the smallest stations 
 is chronicled with more or less frequency, though 
 nobody may be interested therein except the writer. 
 Thus run the chronicles : 
 
 Pogglynuggur.— The weather here is very hot; the 
 thermometer goes up to 102° in the shade, and the ryots are 
 making pooja for rain, which is wanted for their crops-. 
 
 T 
 
276 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 Owing to this the prices in our bazaar are very high — rice 12 
 seers per rupee — and the poor Government clerk has difficulty 
 in living on his pay. When will Government increase the 
 pay of its humble and useful clerks? — There is not much 
 •news here. Our worthy magistrate is ill and our beloved 
 Commissioner is out in the district. Yesterday commenced 
 the trial of Bun wary Bajpai for the murder of his wife ; it is 
 expected that he will be found guilty. — Cholera has broken 
 out in Bausbuttipore, but our energetic civil surgeon has 
 taken steps to put a stop to it; only one old woman and 
 a goat have as yet succumbed to this epidemic, and the death 
 of the former may have been partly due to her great age (she 
 was 97) and a fall of several feet that she met with shortly 
 before her death. — The police have arrested a person who is 
 suspected of being concerned in the Waabee conspiracy : it 
 was thought that some papers found upon him were letters 
 from the leading conspirators, but they have proved to be 
 only some accounts of the suspected party. — The annual 
 examination of our school has just terminated. Out of 
 twenty-three boys the most excellent was Earn Bhose, who 
 has been recommended by our able principal for an appoint- 
 ment in a Government office. — The remarriage of a Hindoo 
 widow has created considerable excitement amongst all classes 
 here: the bride is the daughter of a wealthy bunnea (corn- 
 dealer) and the bridegroom is the head clerk in the Com- 
 missioner's cutcherry. — A leopard that has for some time 
 infested these parts was killed a week ago by a successful and 
 courageous party of shikarrees, and Baboo Shumsheer Doss, 
 our indefatigable and honoured Deputy-Postmaster, is ex- 
 pected to be promoted. 
 
 The above specimen lacks the extravagance that 
 sometimes characterises these gossipings, but it is 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AJVD THE PRESS. 277 
 
 accurate enough as an example of the subject matter. 
 The extent to which verbiage may be pushed by the 
 native is best instanced by the following address to 
 a letter : 
 
 Most worshipful and whose feet are worshipped. 
 Srijut (with prosperity) father Thakur 
 
 NOBLE IN MIND. 
 
 This letter to his respected pair of feet. 
 
 From Akna, in Zillat Hooghly, to Ghuri-Thana Katoali, 
 Zillah Nuddea, to the house of much respected Kamchandra 
 Dass of the above-named place, from his obliged son Rag- 
 hunath Dass. 
 
 Eeading this, is it to be marvelled at that the 
 long-suffering authorities of the Post Office have 
 been driven to ask the assistance of the educational 
 department in checking the unnecessarily copious 
 addresses on vernacular letters ? 
 
 Upon the arrival of each overland mail, the Anglo- 
 Indian papers of every degree give to their readers 
 letters from European correspondents. There are 
 letters from England and letters from Paris : letters 
 from our military correspondent, from our sporting 
 correspondent, and from our general correspondent. 
 Those in the journals of the better class are credit- 
 able resumes of European news, and, with epitomes 
 of Indian news and extracts from other papers, make 
 up a tolerable budget of readable matter. But the 
 
278 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 European letters of some of the second or third rate 
 Moffussil papers, are not unfrequently concocted by 
 the local editor after a perusal of the home journals, 
 or boldly pirated from the home correspondence of 
 the first-class papers. 
 
 And now turn we to the consideration of the rulers 
 who should be controlled by press and public, did 
 press and public exist. In no respect has time — i.e. 
 the time within the last five-and-twenty years — 
 worked greater changes in India than in the per- 
 sonnel of the administration. A quarter of a century 
 since the only service of importance was the cove- 
 nanted civil service. The Punjab, Oude, the Central 
 Provinces, and the ceded districts of Berar had not 
 then given employment to an able and numerous 
 body of military officers in civil employ, aud that class 
 found only a comparatively small field for the ex- 
 ercise of administrative talent in the few appoint- 
 ments open to them in the diplomatic service, and 
 the non-regulation districts of the South- Western 
 Agency and Burmah. So, too, the uncovenanted civil 
 service of that day was restricted to a smaller extent 
 of country and subordinate positions, and the un- 
 covenanted civilian who found himself at the end of 
 forty years' service a first class deputy-magistrate 
 in receipt of 400Z. or 500 1, a year (his covenanted 
 contemporary being then a Sudder judge on as many 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 279 
 
 thousands) had to thank his stars for an exceptionally 
 fortunate career. 
 
 The covenanted civilian of that period enjoyed 
 what was almost a monopoly of the loaves and fishes 
 of the country. To him alone, as a Government 
 servant, was accorded the privilege of shaking the 
 pagoda tree, and his service was made as light as 
 was consistent with the avoidance of a complete 
 dead-lock in the administration. There was no in- 
 decent haste then to set the young civilian to work. 
 Landed in the country, after passing through Hailey- 
 bury, he had to get through a preliminary exami- 
 nation in two languages of India before he was con- 
 sidered qualified to hold an appointment ; and while 
 some embryo Hastings took seven years to master 
 these Asiatic tongues, it was thought highly creditable 
 if the neophyte passed out of college in eighteen 
 months. Now-a-days the competition walla passes a 
 stiffer examination in two or three months, and has 
 for his place of study, not some large capital where he 
 may spend a few years as an idler about town and 
 ornament of society, but some quiet Moffussil district 
 where there is little or nothing to distract him from 
 his books. 
 
 Things were made very pleasant for the young 
 civilian of that day certainly. He had nothing to do 
 while in college but appear before the Board of 
 
280 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 Examiners once a month and not pass, unless lie 
 wished to be more actively employed. Appraised in 
 the matrimonial market as worth 300Z. a year, dead 
 or alive, he was looked upon by mothers and guar- 
 dians as a highly eligible parti whom it was desirable 
 to cultivate. And as he was sure, whatever his 
 failings or shortcomings, to rise to a judgeship, 
 tradespeople gave to him unlimited credit that 
 allowed him, while enjoying an income of 350L a 
 year, to live at the rate of 3,000 1. Whether these 
 were unmixed advantages is not so certain. Marriage 
 between Anglo-Indians in India is always a rather 
 precipitate proceeding. A couple are introduced on 
 Monday, flirt a little on Tuesday, spoon each other 
 for the rest of the week, are engaged on Saturday, 
 and married within the month, without knowing 
 more of each other than that the lady dances well or 
 sings tolerably, and the gentleman smokes more 
 cheroots than should be tolerated in a well-disciplined 
 Benedict. Anglo-Indian engagements are of mush- 
 room growth, and it is said that young ladies 
 occasionally go out to India with the specific object 
 of hunting down a husband, armed with all the 
 nesessary blandishments that captivate, and a trous- 
 seau that includes the necessary virginal costume and 
 orange flowers specially dedicated to Hymen. To 
 the eligible male there was always danger of being 
 captured in the toils of these fair huntresses, and the 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, -AND THE PRESS. 281 
 
 young civilian, as being decidedly eligible and an 
 idler, was above all liable to this risk. 
 
 But worse than the danger of being led to the altar 
 a pas de geant was that which lurked in the unhealthy 
 system of credit that he sometimes fell into. The 
 lady acquaintance of a week might (and in ninety- 
 nine cases out of a hundred did) prove a model wife — 
 a guide, philosopher, and friend. But the tradesman 
 acquaintance of years rarely improved upon acquaint- 
 ance when time failed to bring a settlement of his 
 account, and too frequently dropped the character 
 of a humble servant for that of a greedy and dissatis- 
 fied annuitant. In those good old days a young 
 civilian sometimes left college, after a course of three 
 years, owing bills to the extent of 20,000L or 30,000Z. 
 From one point of view, he had enjoyed himself. 
 He had denied himself nothing. He had driven 
 tandem or four-in-hand ; had kept his stud of saddle- 
 horses, and perhaps his pack of hounds ; had enter- 
 tained his friends with noble hospitality ; had stuck 
 pigs with the tent-club; had shot tigers with 
 civilians of ten times his service and twenty times his 
 pay ; had raced, hunted, danced, acted, and, in short, 
 done everything that cost something and produced 
 nothing that possessed any appreciable pecuniary 
 value. And what if he commenced life in earnest, 
 carrying weight in the race of the world to the extent 
 of two or three lacs' indebtedness ? The hope of 
 
282 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 getting to the top of the tree buoyed him up. The 
 certainty of his reaching a judgeship, on 3,000Z. a 
 year, buoyed up his creditors, and both parties looked 
 forward with some amount of complacency to a pro- 
 tracted system of payment by instalments, which, in 
 the course of time, should clear off the liabilities 
 incurred with so little trouble, and to such scant 
 purpose. 
 
 In these more prosaic times, not only has the 
 young civilian fewer opportunities of running into 
 debt, but there is less credit given to those who have 
 ample opportunity of obtaining it. The civilian is 
 actively employed after a brief novitiate ; he is posted, 
 at starting, where neither society nor tradespeople 
 can tempt him ; and, sad to say, it is no longer his 
 prerogative to be landed on the judicial bench, as in 
 a harbour of refuge for official incapacity. It is not 
 long since that a Lieutenant-Governor, with little 
 respect for conservatism and the traditions of the 
 service, rudely dispelled the idea that a civilian 
 might be a judge although he knew little of the 
 language and less of the law of the country. It was 
 a sad infraction of a time-honoured custom when this 
 pro-consul haled from the seat of justice sundry 
 judges for no better reason than because justice was 
 just the article that they could not be expected to 
 dispense. But this blow at incompetency, once 
 struck, left a lasting impression, and it is now a re- 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AXD THE PRESS. 283 
 
 cognised fact that a civilian can only rise to 
 eminence by his own exertions in the right direction, 
 and that, without ability or perseverance, he may 
 serve for twenty years without ever reaching a posi- 
 tion higher than that of joint magistrate. This is 
 only a minor reason — one of many causes — for the 
 change as regards credit ; but it is hardly necessary to 
 trace out all the influences which have brought about 
 a system of cash payments or short credit, instead of 
 that which once prevailed, to the injury, and some- 
 times ruin, of the young Anglo-Indian. 
 
 Even when he had passed out of college and was 
 in active employ, the civilian of the good old time 
 had no very Herculean labour to perform, unless he 
 voluntarily sought to discharge his duties thoroughly. 
 It was the custom then to record all evidence in the 
 vernacular, and the decision in each case (nominally 
 dictated by the judge, magistrate, collector, assistant 
 or other presiding officer) was also written in the 
 native language. The person upon whom fell the 
 duty of committing evidence and orders to writing 
 was one of the native officials (the sherishtadar), and 
 there was no obligation upon the responsible Anglo- 
 Indian officer to make a note of any sort upon what 
 passed before him. Smoking his cheroot, and 
 indulging in some day-dream, or possibly enjoying 
 some dream strongly resembling those of night, the 
 judge might then preside in his court for hours, and 
 
284 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 decide half a dozen heavy and intricate cases, without 
 the slightest effort, physical or mental. The sherish- 
 tadar cross-examined witnesses, droned out the pro- 
 ceedings when they were recorded, prompted the de- 
 cision, and placed the completed case before the judge 
 for signature. And there was rarely any fault to find 
 as to the completeness of the file or the logical sequence 
 of the decision from the evidence. The sherishtadar, 
 though not above imputation as a knave, was seldom 
 a fool ; he had a very good idea of law, however 
 little equity might engage his attention or meet with 
 his respect ; and where it was necessary to arrive at 
 a particular decision (i.e. where he had been paid for 
 it beforehand) he was not above such ingenious 
 tergiversation of oral testimony and shuffling of 
 documentary proofs as were necessary to make the 
 final order defy appeal. 
 
 That was the halcyon time for the court amla 
 (native subordinate officials), and those rich litigants 
 who could afford to pay for justice (or injustice) as 
 they required it. The sherishtadar, whose direct 
 income was 60Z. a year, received ten times this 
 amount by an indirect process, and it was nothing 
 extraordinary for a court moonshee to live for years 
 at a rate far exceeding that of his pay from Govern- 
 ment, and then retire upon very substantial savings. 
 Even where the presiding officer (Anglo-Indian) 
 judged for himself, the amla imposed upon the igno- 
 
THE EULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 285 
 
 ranee of the people by representing themselves as all- 
 powerful, and were paid for services that were not 
 rendered. The amla were generally believed to have 
 the power of influencing decisions ; and the people, 
 having no means of finding out the truth, often paid 
 for assistance that could not be of any possible ad- 
 vantage to them. All this has changed for the 
 better ; evidence has now to be recorded by the pre- 
 siding officer, in English, or at least he has to take 
 notes of the evidence in his own language ; and the 
 decision has invariably to be recorded in the hand- 
 writing of him who is responsible for it. Court amla 
 may still receive bribes (or shall we say gifts ?) for 
 petty services, but that court must be managed in 
 an exceptionally bad manner in which it is supposed 
 that justice can be bought or sold out and out. 
 
 Besides not being overworked, the civilian of 
 twenty-five years ago was allowed considerable 
 license in other respects. Eccentricities that would 
 now involve official disgrace — perhaps ruin — then 
 only brought down upon their author a mild remons- 
 trance. Many are the stories current as illustrations 
 of those official irregularities. One civilian earned 
 celebrity by the manner in which he accustomed his 
 horse to stand quiet between the shafts while people 
 mounted the carriage into which it was harnessed. 
 He had the vehicle (a buggy) pulled up at his cut- 
 cherry-door, and every native desirous of entering that 
 
286 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 temple of justice had first to pass through the buggy. 
 But greater far than he was that Anglo-Indian judge 
 who, having sentenced a man to death for the 
 murder of his (the prisoner's) brother, refused to 
 alter the sentence, although that brother, in the full 
 enjoyment of life, appeared in court. He had passed 
 his order — the fiat had gone forth — and, whether 
 there were a murder or not, it was a principle of law 
 that a judge could not reverse or change his own 
 decision, and there was an end of it. The story of a 
 magistrate allowing a son to go to jail as the father's 
 proxy is tolerably striking, and it is true. The 
 father was convicted of theft and sentenced to 
 imprisonment : the son pleaded that his father was 
 likely to suffer more than average discomfort from 
 incarceration in jail and forced labour, and volun- 
 teered to expiate his father's offence in his own 
 person. The magistrate, fully appreciating the value 
 of this filial devotion, acceded to the arrangement, 
 and the majesty of the law was vindicated by substi- 
 tute ; not vindicated for any time, however, for the 
 son appealed against the sentence, and, it is hardly 
 necessary to say, was released. But the time has 
 passed for these departures from the ordinary course, 
 and the civilian who does not wish to waste his 
 sweetness in a very subordinate position must 
 know something of his duty and perform it. 
 
 The starting-point of the covenanted civilian's 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 287 
 
 career is one for all men — an assistant magistrate- 
 ship in a regulation district, or an assistant com- 
 rnissionership (of the lowest grade) in a non-regula- 
 tion district. As an assistant magistrate and deputy 
 collector he learns all the duties of those deparments 
 to which, in the ordinary course of things, he will 
 have to devote the first ten or twelve years of his 
 service. The promotion that he naturally looks for 
 is from an assistant to a joint magistrateship, and 
 then to a full magistrate and collectorship. During 
 all these years he is a district officer, whose time is 
 fully occupied with executive, revenue, and magis- 
 terial duties. He has mastered the penal code and 
 code of criminal procedure. He has «tt his fingers' 
 ends the details of the rent law, and is an authority 
 upon most revenue matters, from the settlement of 
 estates to the management of excise. He has 
 undergone such a training as was required to make 
 of him a commissioner of revenue or a member of the 
 revenue board. But, unfortunately, his next pro- 
 motion is not in the direction for which he is fitted, 
 for the natural step from a magistrate and collector- 
 ship is to a judgeship, and as a judge he is called 
 upon to exercise a knowledge of civil law that he 
 does not possess, or to which at least he has served 
 no apprenticeship. This change in the civilian's 
 position is equivalent to the elevation of Mr. Knox 
 from the Marlborough Street Police Court to the 
 
288 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 bench of the Court of Common Pleas, and the 
 anomaly of the proceeding is exaggerated by the fact 
 that the new-made judge (a very neophyte himself) 
 has to direct and supervise the work of uncovenanted 
 subordinate judges who have spent the best part of a 
 lifetime at judicial work. 
 
 But the sudden transformation of a revenue and 
 executive officer into a judicial functionary is not the 
 only objectionable feature in the normal sequence of 
 a civilian's appointments. Another metamorphosis 
 may immediately await him, and by the time that he 
 has learnt something of the law and practice of his 
 court and forgotten much of his revenue experience, 
 he may be promoted into the revenue line once more 
 as a commissioner. It is true that the civilian of 
 second or third rate ability may end his caree^ in a 
 judgeship and give more than half his time of service 
 to this particular branch, but it can hardly be desir- 
 able that experience should only be obtained on the 
 district bench as a consort of mediocrity ; and the 
 movement that now favours the idea that the judicial 
 and executive departments may be separated is one 
 that must obtain consideration and support. 
 
 In the non-regulation provinces the system of 
 training and promotion is less objectionable. The 
 assistant commissioner early commences practice as 
 a civil judge. He is a subordinate magistrate and 
 collector like the assistant magistrate, but he adds to 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 289 
 
 his occupation in these capacities the duties of a 
 subordinate judge. Promoted to a deputy commis- 
 sionership, he advances in all branches. He is then 
 a magistrate and collector with full powers and a 
 civil and sessions judge with modified jurisdiction ; 
 and his next promotion to a commissionership gives 
 him the position of a regulation district judge, with 
 the authority of a regulation divisional commissioner 
 of revenue. 
 
 Through all the grades to a judgeship or commis- 
 sionership promotion falls to average officers with 
 average regularity; but thereafter advance comes 
 of powerful interest, or, more frequently, exceptional 
 talent. There are some few highly lucrative and 
 comfortable appointments, for which high-class 
 ability is not commonly considered an indispensable 
 qualification. An opium agency is generally believed 
 to be an official harbour of refuge for a civilian whose 
 ambition does not raise within him an objection to 
 being shelved in a well-paid sinecure. The Board of 
 Revenue has been more than once labelled as an 
 asylum for intellectual poverty, although work of an 
 important character is required of its members, and 
 some superior men have found a seat there. But the 
 higher appointments generally — the prizes of the 
 service, such as the posts of High Court Judge, 
 Member of Council, Secretary to Government, Chief 
 Commissioner, and Lieutenant-Governor — fall, as a 
 
 u 
 
290 life m INDIA. 
 
 rule, to those whose talents and energies have 
 advanced them beyond the crowd. 
 
 Nor does it always follow that the young civilian 
 goes steadily through all the grades that form the 
 official scale above described. The man of more than 
 ordinary capacity may strike out a career for himself 
 before promotion in the regular course has fallen to 
 him. He may be drawn from the ranks of the junior 
 class to fill an appointment in the secretariat, or to 
 occupy some other position in which he will have 
 an opportunity of distinguishing himself in a field 
 where there are fewer competitors for fame. And 
 the man who has no special claim on the ground of 
 official superiority may find it to his advantage to 
 quit the regular line for some exceptional depart- 
 ment, such as that of the Survey. 
 
 The mere fact of a civilian having quitted the 
 main line of judicial revenue and executive work 
 does not, however, incapacitate him for a return 
 thereto when it is convenient to revert to the old 
 path. It is not held to be an insuperable obstacle to 
 the appointment of a civilian to a judgeship that the 
 nominee has looked at judicial work only from the 
 remote standpoint of the secretariat. It is believed 
 to be possible that a civilian may make a thoroughly 
 efficient chief revenue authority without having 
 undergone any of the drudgery of subordinate offices. 
 In short, it sometimes appears to be a generally 
 
THE KULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 291 
 
 accepted principle that commissioners, judges, and 
 others are, like poets, born to their position, and 
 altogether superior to the necessity of professional 
 training. The proposed separation of judicial from 
 other departments will, when carried out, systematise 
 more correctly the manner of promotion ; but our 
 present purpose is the description of what exists, not 
 the consideration of what may result from future 
 reform. 
 
 It must not be supposed for a moment that the 
 civilian is underworked. In the great majority of 
 instances he does a fair day's work for a wage that 
 (climate, exile, and other disadvantages being 
 remembered) is certainly not more than a fair 
 equivalent. The actual time spent by judicial and 
 revenue officers in cutcherry is from six to eight 
 hours a day ; and during that time the attention of 
 the official rarely flags, while his hand is almost 
 constantly employed in recording what passes before 
 him. The piles of correspondence, the long reports, 
 the carefully weighed precis, the intricate accounts, 
 &c. that occupy those of the secretariat and heads of 
 departments involve no slight amount of labour and 
 thought. And to the district officer, whether he be 
 in the saddle, on the bench, or in the writing-room 
 of his bungalow, the affairs of his district are 
 always present — a source of anxious care and toil. 
 
 Activity, promptitude, tact, and perseverance are 
 xx 2 
 
292 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the characteristics of an efficient magistrate and 
 collector or deputy commissioner, and his life from 
 day to day is something in the following fashion. 
 Up, like Anglo-Indians universally, by dawn, he takes 
 his early breakfast (chota hazri) in the verandah, 
 while his native subordinates (moonshees or 
 sherishtadars) read to him the reports that have 
 come in by the early post of the day or the late post 
 of the preceding evening. Upon these he passes 
 such orders as may be necessary, and then turns to 
 such work — report writing, or the preparation of 
 statements — as he may be able to do at home. Yery 
 possibly he has to devote some portion of the early 
 morning to a visit to his jail or to some public work 
 for which he is responsible, or he may have to ride 
 several miles to make a local investigation called for 
 by some case pending before him in court, or 
 necessary for the purpose of replying to a question 
 put by a superior official. Breakfast completed, he 
 has to wend his way to cutcherry, and there give 
 many hours to the hearing of revenue suits or 
 criminal cases, or to the dispatch of the many duties 
 apart from those of a dispenser of justice that fall to 
 his lot. And it is well for him if there be not more 
 work in the shape of report writing, or correspon- 
 dence, or decisions, to get through after dinner. It 
 is not every civilian who has to work as hard as this, 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 293 
 
 but few can afford to be idlers without abandoning 
 all hope of rising in the service. 
 
 In the non-regulation provinces the military \ 
 civilian competes with the covenanted civilian upon 
 almost equal terms. From an assistant- commission- 
 ership to a commissionership he ascends the official 
 scale in due sequence of promotion. So far, it 
 rarely happens that a civilian proper passes over him 
 in the ascent. And if, in his struggle to reach the 
 higher appointments, the prize is more frequently 
 snatched from him by a junior of the more favoured 
 service, it must generally be conceded that he who 
 forestalled him had some peculiar claim to the 
 preference. That the blue ribbons of the service are 
 to be won by the military in civil employ experience 
 has fully shown : some of the most important posts 
 in the country are held by them : and to them is 
 consigned all but the monopoly of the diplomatic 
 appointments. The onerous duties of the council, 
 the secretariat, the postmaster-generalship, and 
 other responsible offices of the administration have 
 been imposed upon those whose weapon at the 
 commencement of the battle of life was the sword 
 rather than the pen ; and, given the requisite 
 qualifications, there are but few goals that the 
 soldier may not hope to reach. 
 
 It is not without the preliminary ordeal of 
 examination that the soldier enters upon a civil 
 
294 life m INDIA. 
 
 career. To become a civilian he must enter the 
 staff corps, and entrance to that body is only gained 
 by passing an examination — varying in its character 
 according to the nature of the employment aimed at 
 — which is never so recondite as some of those that 
 are used as tests for some other services, but quite 
 searching enough upon all useful subjects. The 
 examinee is not required to give the maiden name of 
 William the- Conqueror's nurse, or a detailed 
 biography of the man who burnt the Temple of 
 Ephesus. He is not called upon to parade a 
 quantity of superficial knowledge which is mainly 
 due to some system of mnemonics. But he must 
 exhibit a substantial acquaintance with the native 
 dialects, the law, and the history of the people he is 
 to assist in ruling, and only when he has done this 
 is he qualified for civil employ. 
 
 Besides giving civilians to the civil administration, 
 the staff corps supplies officers to the Indian local 
 army ; and in thus providing a wide field for those 
 who wish to make a career in India, the staff corps 
 attracts to its ranks many subalterns from the 
 British regiments. This fact is felt to be a grievance 
 by some of the senior officers of Queen's troops. 
 The newly attached ensign, knowing little of his 
 work, is next to useless, and before he has well 
 mastered the mysteries of the goose-step and platoon 
 drill, he has learnt that India affords to the energetic 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 295 
 
 Englishman more lucrative employment and a 
 greater chance of earning distinction than are to be 
 discovered in the barrack or on the parade-ground. 
 Before he is half a soldier he abandons his regiment 
 for the staff corps : and the vacancy he leaves has to 
 be filled by another to whom the goose-step and 
 drill manual are yet unrevealed arcana. In the 
 course of time provision may be made for keeping up 
 the supply of staff corps officers without drawing 
 upon the resources and reducing the strength of our 
 British troops. Officers may be elected for Indian 
 service by competitive examination, or reared in 
 some new Addiscombe. But under existing con- 
 ditions the evil complained of (if it be an evil) is 
 inevitable ; for, until junior officers were drafted 
 from the British into the local army, there impended 
 the dilemma (a dilemma to which Americans do not 
 object) of having native regiments officered by only 
 lieutenant-colonels. 
 
 Last of the three civil services is that of the * un- 
 co venanted.' It is the misfortune of this branch 
 that it includes grades that are widely divided in 
 every respect but those of the most importance. 
 They are all uncovenanted. As far as this distinctive 
 title is concerned, the commissioner of a non-regula- 
 tion division, who performs all the duties of a 
 covenanted judge and commissioner and receives a 
 salary of 3,000?. a year, is one with the native writer 
 
296 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 who copies papers mechanically and is liberally remu- 
 nerated by 21. a month. And more than this — for 
 both of these (or at least for every gazetted, uncove- 
 nanted official) the leave and pension rules are the 
 same ; and for neither of them is any provision made 
 by the Government table of precedence. 1 Nominally 
 equal for all, the leave rules operate in the most 
 unequal manner upon English and native uncovenanted 
 servants. To the native it is easy enough to visit 
 his home once a year when he takes the one month 
 privilege leave allowed after eleven months of service ; 
 or he may spend two or three months of every second 
 or third year at his home by accumulating this 
 leave. To the Englishman it is only possible to visit 
 his home upon longer leave, and, unless his health 
 break down, this longer leave can only come to him 
 after tedious intervals, and even then there is 
 nothing singular as to its length. The amended 
 rules of the other services permit the covenanted and 
 military civilian to visit Europe, on favourable terms, 
 after every four or five years ; and they allow as much 
 as three years' furlough at a time. The unamended 
 rules of the uncovenanted give as the first instalment 
 of leave, claimable of right, one year's furlough after 
 ten years' service, or six months' leave on private 
 affairs after six years' service ; and this furlough, or 
 
 1 By recent orders a distinction has been made as to leave rules of the 
 higher and lower grades of the U. C. S. 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AKD THE PRESS. 297 
 
 private affairs leave, is alike for all the races (Euro- 
 pean, Eurasian, and native) of the uncovenanted 
 body. The matter of precedence is one that might 
 well be lightly heeded if it did not extend beyond 
 social regulations. It may be galling to the pride of 
 Jones maximus, an uncovenanted of twenty years' 
 standing, to find himself with no recognised status, 
 and see his brothers Jones minor and minimus (re- 
 spectively a captain of ten and covenanted civilian of 
 five years' service) rank above him in society. But 
 it would be infinitely more galling to Jones maximus 
 to find his younger brothers pass over him in official 
 promotion ; and such a disaster as this is not alto- 
 gether beyond the bounds of possibility. 
 
 While the military civilian is not to be found in 
 the regulation provinces at all, the uncovenanted is 
 only to be discovered there at a disadvantage to 
 himself. Up to a certain point, the uncovenanted 
 advances in the non-regulation provinces stride for 
 stride with members of the other services. In regu- 
 lation districts he is an official helot — never rising 
 above the dignity of a deputy magistrate or deputy 
 collector or principal S udder Ameer. It is true that 
 in either of these capacities he performs most of the 
 duties of his covenanted superiors. He has full 
 powers as magistrate and collector and judge. His 
 decisions have the same weight, and are appealable 
 in the same manner as those of the covenanted 
 
298 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 magistrate, collector, or judge. But he can never 
 hope to arrive at anything like the position or earn 
 the salary of his more favoured brother worker, 
 unless he can escape to a non-regulation district. 
 
 It may be argued that those who enter the unco- 
 venanted service adopt this career of inferior prospects 
 with their eyes open, and that any favour shown to 
 them must be granted to the detriment of the 
 prospects that covenanted civilians have been led to 
 believe their peculiar right. But there are many 
 ' uncovenanted ' who entered the service of Govern- 
 ment at a time when it was universally believed that 
 the uncovenanted service was to be materially im- 
 proved, and even after an Act of Parliament had 
 opened to all Europeans of a few years' residence and 
 experience in India who possessed certain qualifica- 
 tions nearly every appointment in the country. 
 In some provinces this law has been little more 
 than a dead letter, but to the uncovenanted it is 
 yet a dream of the future that this indulgent enact- 
 ment may be brought into operation, and military 
 officers in civil employ live in the same hope, 
 with less reason to despair of seeing their hope 
 realised. 
 
 And now for a few words as to the manner in 
 which these services are employed in the civil 
 administration of British India. Controlled in some 
 measure and upon certain points by the Secretary of 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 299 
 
 State for India and his Council, the Viceroy and 
 Governor-General, as the representative of the 
 Empress of Hindostan, is the monarch — and to a 
 great extent a despotic monarch — of our Indian 
 possessions and its dependencies. India is too 
 remote from Whitehall to admit of anything like 
 constant or direct rule by the India Office. There 
 is, as we have already tried to show, no public opinion 
 as a local check upon the Government. And except 
 that he has a council whose voice is often heard, the 
 Viceroy is subject to little more control than the 
 Satrap of Egypt. 
 
 Assisted by his ordinary council, the Viceroy 
 determines all questions of policy that concern the 
 empire, supervises the proceedings of governors, 
 lieutenant-governors and chief commissioners, and, 
 aided by his legislative council, frames laws for 
 general application. It is not, however, absolutely 
 necessary that every act of the Imperial legislature 
 should be applied to every province ; exceptions are 
 of frequent occurrence, and governors and lieutenant- 
 governors have councils of their own to frame a local 
 code. To the legislative bodies non-official members 
 — leading merchants, barristers, and others — Euro- 
 pean and native, are admitted ; but the ordinary or 
 executive council of the Governor-General is a select 
 body, composed of one representative member from 
 each of the provinces — Bengal, Bombay, Madras, the 
 
300 LIFE IN ITOIA. 
 
 North-West provinces and the Punjab — a financial, a 
 military, and a legislative member ; and the executive 
 councils of the Governors of Bombay and Madras are 
 exclusive bodies on a smaller scale. 
 
 In subordination to the Governor-General, lieute- 
 nant-governors and chief commissioners rule over 
 the provinces committed to their charge. Upon 
 chief commissioners the supervision of the supreme 
 authority has a greater controlling power than that 
 exercised upon other proconsuls. Upon many points, 
 such as the appointment and promotion of officers, 
 &c, the chief commissioner has to obtain that author- 
 ity of the Governor- General that is not required in 
 similar cases by a lieutenant-governor or governor ; 
 but even with these restrictions the power of the 
 chief commissioner (over a population of, perhaps, 
 eight to ten millions) is little short of regal. 
 
 Similarly subject to the direct control of the 
 supreme Government are the residents and political 
 agents at native States, — those diplomatic officers 
 who, with a limited staff, watch and often direct the 
 proceedings of the native princes of Gwalior, Hyder- 
 abad, and elsewhere. 
 
 In each province of the British dominions there is 
 a court of final appeal and superintendence in 
 matters judicial and civil. In the larger provinces 
 the court is one of several judges. In the smaller 
 provinces one judge, styled the judicial commissioner, 
 
THE RULERS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PRESS. 301 
 
 exercises these offices. So too in revenue affairs 
 there is a chief authority, although widely differing 
 in character. In Bengal and the North- West pro- 
 vinces there are commissioners in subordination to 
 the chief controlling revenue authority — a board of 
 several members. In Madras there is a board 
 without commissioners. In Bombay there are two 
 commissioners, who are also the board. And in the 
 smaller provinces the commissioners look to a board 
 which is represented by one member — a financial 
 commissioner. In each province there is also an 
 inspector-general of police, who is responsible for, 
 and chief of, the whole constabulary of the many 
 districts in his jurisdiction ; and there are heads of 
 other departments : inspectors of schools, customs 
 commissioners, and others, who are paramount with 
 their immediate subordinates, although immediately 
 controlled by some superior executive or revenue 
 authority. 
 
 Somewhat like that celebrated story of the house 
 that Jack built is the description of official super- 
 vision. The assistant magistrate is looked after by 
 the joint magistrate ; the joint magistrate is a sub- 
 ordinate of the magistrate ; the magistrate's commit- 
 ments and appeals go to the judge ; and the high 
 court exercises authority over the orders of the 
 judge. And it is the same with deputy collectors 
 collectors, commissioners, and board of revenue ; and 
 
302 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 with inspectors of police, assistant district superin- 
 tendents, district superintendents, and inspectors- 
 general. 
 
 To go into a detailed description of the system of 
 governmental departments would be inconsistent 
 with a work which only aims at painting life in India 
 in its social aspect. It might prove tedious without 
 being proportionately instructive to go into all the 
 minutisG of departments. And we therefore quit the 
 subject of the rulers in India after briefly showing 
 what are the salient points in the three civil services, 
 and the most prominent features of the administra- 
 tion. 
 
303 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 
 
 In the good old days when India was only 
 approached by the route struck out by Yasco di 
 Gama (and those days were yet dawning consider- 
 ably less than half a century since) the voyage round 
 the Cape was a formidable undertaking, not to be 
 thought of save when stern necessity made it 
 inevitable. The eastward bound traveller of that 
 time was, as compared with the modern specimen, 
 an adventurous navigator like unto the Argonauts. 
 Embarking at the East India Docks or Gravesend or 
 Portsmouth, he had to abandon himself to a life on 
 the ocean wave and a home in the good ship 
 ' Bellerophon,' or what not (1,000 tons Al for 13 
 years), for the next three, six, or nine months. It 
 was with him much as though he took unfurnished 
 apartments with the view of settling down for a rea- 
 sonable period; his cabin was made over to him 
 bare, and he adorned it with such articles as he 
 pleased to place, or could find room for, therein. If 
 of simple tastes, he contented himself with such 
 
304 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 necessaries as a cot, washhand-stand, and chest of 
 drawers — if of a luxurious turn of mind, he 
 encumbered his small cell with many things that 
 were not absolutely indispensable, and that were very 
 much in the way in the first gale of wind. 
 Sufficiently monotonous was this long sea voyage 
 with its daily routine, the repetition of the routine of 
 every preceding day for months. It was an agree- 
 able relief to this monotony to see a school of 
 porpoises or a stray dolphin. To speak some 
 parsing vessel was an adventure that afforded 
 passengers and crew healthy mental occupation for 
 several hours. And the chance of seeing land (even 
 though it might be some uninhabited reef) was 
 matter of anxious thought and curiosity for two or 
 three days. There was certainly some degree of 
 probability that the voyage would be attended by 
 some incident that was not necessarily anticipated, 
 but then the novelty was not always on the side of 
 advantage. Adverse winds might take the good 
 ship far out of her track, and give her a chance of 
 making the intimate acquaintance of an iceberg in 
 the southern seas. Becalmed upon the line, she 
 might for weeks float upon the placid ocean an idle 
 log — her sails flapping lazily against the masts. 
 The victim of a storm, she might have to put into the 
 Cape for repairs, and thus afford the passengers an 
 opportunity of learning something of some of the 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 305 
 
 interesting races of Africa ; or tempest-stricken, she 
 might drift about the waste of waters until relieved 
 bj some ship sailing in her course, or sink — her tale 
 of agony untold — out of the reach of aid and far 
 from the sight of man, for ever. 
 
 It was a voyage that had to be prepared for with 
 due forethought and deliberation. Far from the 
 cleanly services of the laundress, the voyager had to 
 depend entirely upon the resources of his wardrobe 
 to ensure his occasional appearance in clean raiment. 
 Six dozen shirts and other articles in proportion 
 constituted a stock that had to be carefully and 
 economically drawn upon until it was certain that 
 the voyage would not be a singularly slow one, or 
 until, the vessel putting in at some port, there was a 
 chance of sending things to the wash. If he 
 required soda water, or anything from Holloway's 
 pills to ceil de perdrix champagne that was not to be 
 had of the steward, he was compelled to lay in such 
 a stock as would carry him through. And, unless 
 he possessed the sleeping power of a dormouse, he 
 had to furnish himself with such a store of books, 
 cards, chess paraphernalia &c, as would assist him 
 in killing the time not employed in the regular and 
 often repeated duties of eating and sleeping. 
 
 The society on board one of these marine prisons 
 was guided by the strictest rules of precedence, and 
 formality was often there more rigid than it was on 
 
 x 
 
306 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 shore. The government was of a despotic nature, 
 tempered (very badly tempered sometimes) by the 
 peculiar characteristics of the captain. Captain by 
 courtesy — master in point of fact — the skipper was a 
 power in his own ship. To his right as the point of 
 honour at the dinner- table was placed that lady 
 whose husband occupied the uppermost rung of the 
 social ladder, on his left sat the lady next in degree, 
 and ladies of less importance had to content them- 
 selves with positions right and left of the chief 
 officer and doctor. Though some were hardy enough 
 to declare the captain to be only the master of a 
 floating hotel, he was to the majority (including 
 himself of course) a ruler whose smile gave pleasure 
 and whose frown caused terror to all around. To 
 those of the weaker sex he was a condescending 
 companion who entertained them with agreeable 
 discourse about various marine wonders — the sailing 
 powers of his own craft, and so forth. To the 
 youngsters of the male sex with fast proclivities he 
 was a hard task-master, who ordered lights to be 
 extinguished at a preposterously early hour, and 
 threatened to put in irons those passengers who were 
 sociably and innocently mutinous. The inhabitants 
 of the saloon (cuddy more correctly) were as one 
 family of which the captain was a foster or step- 
 father, and the senior officers and doctors close 
 relations ; everybody knew everything (or pretended 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 307 
 
 to know, which was much the same) about everybody 
 else, and nearly everybody quarrelled more or less 
 with nearly every other body in a strictly family 
 manner. Strangers met on board at Portsmouth to 
 part at Calcutta dearest friends and forget each 
 other most completely six weeks afterwards. Bache- 
 lors and spinsters wooed and were won — married at 
 the Cape — and reached their destination as old 
 married people whose honeymoon had long since 
 waned. Half a dozen people who came on board 
 with spotless fame quitted the vessel without a rag 
 of reputation left. And successive batches of pas- 
 sengers upon parting with the captain softened his 
 agony at losing them by presenting him with a 
 testimonial in the shape of a small piece of silver, and 
 a very long letter that represented him as being a 
 happy compound of the skilful navigator and 
 polished gentleman. 
 
 There are some few people who still attempt the 
 long sea voyage between India and England. 
 People who think they require a long rest to mind 
 and body, and much sea air, occasionally patronise 
 this route. But for the world in general the over- 
 land route is the only one dreamt of. A different 
 affair altogether is this overland trip. Though a 
 shirt-collar and tooth-brush would barely suffice for 
 it, a man might very well attempt it with little more 
 impedimenta than a carpet bag. To the overland 
 
 x 2 
 
308 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 passenger it does not occur to have to think of fur- 
 nishing a cabin — that is done for him. And the 
 journey from port to port only occupying a few days, 
 he finds repeated opportunities — at Malta, Alexan- 
 dria, Suez, Aden, Galle and where not — of buying 
 anything that may be necessary to his comfort. 
 
 Being on board an overland steamer the passen- 
 ger finds none of that formality which distinguishes 
 the sailing vessel. He is one of a large party occu- 
 pying an hotel, and, whether count or cobbler, 
 receives such accommodation as he pays for. There 
 is no rule of precedence to indicate his position 
 at the dinner-table. The only known law at that 
 hospitable board, is, First come first served ; and he 
 who is first to come may take up any position (save 
 those set aside for the officers) that he selects. To 
 the purser he is a number, like a convict at 
 Portland. To the stewards also he is a number : 
 and to the captain he is nobody. 
 
 Very mixed is the society on board one of the P. 
 and 0. or Messageries Imperiales steamers. Civi- 
 lians and military officers of all grades, indigo 
 planters, barristers, gentlemen (perhaps noblemen) 
 of fortune who go out to seek amusement, gentlemen 
 of no fortmne who go out in search of the root of all 
 evil or the pagoda tree, tradespeople, Bengallee 
 Baboos, Egyptians, and others, are thrown together 
 in a state of complete confusion out of which they 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 309 
 
 may extricate themselves as best they can. There is 
 
 A. the High Court Judge — a judicial dignitary 
 
 of high standing and mature age, doomed for two 
 or three weeks to sit between B. and C. : B. being a 
 youthful mechanical engineer who drops his aspi- 
 rates, eats peas with his knife, and loves his beer not 
 wisely but too we]l ; while C. is a young subaltern 
 who is utterly insensible to all civilian distinctions, 
 and recognises only as worthy of his respect the 
 gallant 151st to which he belongs and the rules of 
 whist which he practises. There, again, is D., wine 
 merchant and general dealer (retail vendor of herme- 
 tically sealed provisions, cheroots, tobacco, oilmen's 
 stores, children's toys, Birmingham jewelry, &c. &c.) 
 in Calcutta, who, all unknown to European fame, has 
 passed in England as a merchant prince ; there is 
 the unfortunate D. located next to an old customer 
 who erst while returned to him sundry bottles of a 
 fluid which he had sold as claret, but which, upon 
 examination by the purchaser, had proved to be more 
 closely allied to vinegar than to any other market- 
 able commodity. And so it is throughout. The 
 several passengers become, as it were, a pack of cards 
 in which there is little difference between the king 
 and deuce ; chance cuts them ; and the purser deals 
 them with very slight regard to where they fall. 
 
 Not altogether luxurious are the accommodation 
 and entertainment of the overland steamers. It is 
 
310 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 not absolutely agreeable to be one of four occupying 
 a four-berth, cabin in which there is barely room for 
 two to stand upright at one time, and certainly not 
 more than enough space for one to perform his 
 toilette. It is not always particularly pleasant 
 dining in a P. and 0. steamer saloon where, flanked 
 on either side by the cabins of passengers, one is 
 kept keenly alive to one's position by the wailings of 
 teething infants and sea-sick adults. To feel per- 
 petually the vibration or pulsation of screw or paddle, 
 and smell incessantly the combined essence born of 
 the engine room and the galley, can hardly be con- 
 sidered the most pleasing employment of the senses 
 of feeling and sight. Nor are matters improved by 
 undergoing these experiences in the worst season of 
 the Red Sea, when it is agony to wear the most 
 ethereal garments and an anxious task to keep one's 
 self reasonably dry and as far removed from fever 
 heat as is possible. But then, whatever our dis- 
 comforts may be, the journey is comparatively soon 
 over, and the philosopher accepts his sufferings with 
 resignation, knowing that the end is not far off. 
 
 To post a letter in London on Saturday the 1st 
 that shall be delivered in Bombay on Thursday 
 the 20th, is a fact that may be accomplished now, 
 though half a century since a missive was on its way 
 as many months as it now is weeks; and the 
 passenger, by good luck, may be equally expeditious. 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 311 
 
 Three years ago the passenger leaving London on 
 Friday night (1st), was at Marseilles on Sunday 
 morning (3rd). If not impeded by luggage he 
 snatched his hand portmanteau and hat box from 
 under his seat in the railway carriage, jumped into 
 the first well horsed cab waiting outside, and got on 
 board the steamer while the mails were being taken 
 in. Leaving Marseilles on the 3rd he in all proba- 
 bility arrived at Alexandria on the 8th. The 
 journey across the desert is an affair of twelve hours, 
 and on the 10th he embarked again at Suez. 
 Touching Aden early on the 15th, he found himself 
 at Bombay on the 24th, and possibly on the 23rd. 
 
 But this does not represent the most rapid commu- 
 nication now possible ; and (setting aside the dream 
 of the Euphrates valley line and India's great iron 
 way, that is to bring England and her great depen- 
 dency within a few days of each other), the existing 
 route may speedily be very materially shortened and 
 improved. The route by Brindisi occupies two days 
 less than that by Marseilles, and it is quite possible, 
 by improved running on the French and Italian lines 
 of railway, to make the saving more substantial. 
 The route by Trieste is also shorter and similarly 
 susceptible of improvement. And the hope is not 
 wholly vain that within a reasonable time rail 
 communication may have still further superseded 
 the services of steamers westward of Alexandria. 
 
312 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 On the side of India greater facilities of internal 
 communication are necessary, and in some instances 
 have been projected. While the mails for every 
 province of India go in the first instance to Bombay, 
 the means for distributing them are very far from 
 satisfactory. Those for Bengal, the North-west 
 Provinces, Oude and the greater part of the Punjaub, 
 pass from Bombay through Allahabad (the capital of 
 of the North-west Provinces). The distance from 
 Bombay to Allahabad is 977 miles, and is accom- 
 plished by rail in thirty-six hours. From Allahabad 
 the Bengal mails go south-eastward, and those for 
 Oude and the Punjaub to the north-west. The 
 544 miles from Allahabad to Calcutta are traversed 
 by rail in twenty-eight hours. The greater distance 
 to Lahore, in proportionately good time. 
 
 But then, there are but few branch lines of rail 
 ready for traffic, and not any adequate number seri- 
 ously contemplated. Tracts of country as large as 
 England are yet to be found in India destitute <> of 
 every vestige of an iron way ; and journeys of several 
 hundred miles have yet to be undertaken by some 
 method of progression that has passed out of the 
 memory of the Briton in England. Nor can it be 
 said that the main lines have by any means done 
 what might be expected of them. A link is yet 
 wanting in the chain that is to connect Bengal and 
 many important points ; and a great many links are 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 313 
 
 required to complete the connection between Madras 
 and Bengal. From Calcutta, Madras is best ap- 
 proached by sea : a letter sent overland from one 
 capital to the other could only be expected to arrive 
 in twelve to fourteen days, and the traveller who 
 attempted this route might never be expected to 
 arrive at all. 
 
 Returning to the consideration of the overland 
 journey, we will describe some of its principal 
 features in respect of Eastern experience. It is at 
 Alexandria that one obtains the first glimpse of 
 oriental life. Here, as it were, east and west meet 
 and struggle for mastery. In the European quarter, 
 the west (principally represented by France) is 
 paramount. In the bazaars Asia and Africa 
 predominate. The whole place is a jumble of the 
 scenes favoured by Haroun Alraschid, and those 
 happy streets in Paris in which three houses out of 
 four are cafes. The peculiarities that first suggest 
 themselves to the newly-arrived visitor are dirt, heat, 
 and .fleas; those that immediately follow are the 
 ascendancy of the French in Egypt, and the 
 frequency with which you come upon natives who 
 have less than the normal number of eyes or fingers. 
 The canal possibly explains the former, the conscrip- 
 tion fully accounts for the latter. Military service 
 under the banners of the Pasha does not meet with 
 the approval of all the Pasha's subjects, so, as all 
 
314 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 who are physically competent are liable to be called 
 upon to serve, it is a common practice with these 
 ingenious people to put out an eye or amputate the 
 trigger finger. One-eyed calenders meet the way- 
 farer at every turn, and it is hardly credible that 
 ophthalmia (prevalent as this disease is) has caused 
 the loss of vision in so many instances. 
 
 In the European quarter one is forcibly reminded 
 of la belle France. The principal thoroughfare might 
 be taken as an abbreviated edition of the Rue de 
 Rivoli, with the gardens of the Louvre (on a small 
 scale, and without the Louvre itself) in the centre, 
 instead of on one side. Light-hearted Gauls and 
 Italians, who never seem to have any particular duty 
 to attend to — unless playing dominoes and drinking 
 eau sucree constitute a profession of Alexandria — sit 
 day and night inside or outside the cafes that line 
 the street, or saunter up and down in front of the 
 shops that are kept by more Gauls and Italians. 
 Towards the evening these light-hearted and lightly- 
 worked people may change the scene of their occu- 
 pations, and go down to other cafes upon the shores 
 of the Mediterranean; but the occupations remain 
 unchanged, and the murmur of the summer sea is 
 chorussed by the rattling of dice and dominoes and 
 the clinking of glasses used for the irrepressible eau 
 sucree and lemonade. At night cafes and caffes, 
 casinos, and cafes chantants, tables for roulette and 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 315 
 
 other games (facetiously called by the proprietor 
 games of chance, but dreary certainties in fact), are 
 open till midnight. And the traveller who only saw 
 this phase of Alexandrian life might well be in 
 doubt whether he were not back in Marseilles once 
 again. 
 
 But going into the native portion of the town the 
 scene is completely changed. Hereaway one mixes 
 in a crowd that represents nearly every known 
 nationality, and might be drawn upon very satisfac- 
 torily to furnish a museum of living ethnological 
 specimens. Here one is jostled by a Nubian ; there 
 one runs against a Turk. There are around us 
 people of every quarter of the globe — as far as 
 language is concerned the tower of Babel is here 
 paralleled — and the study of mankind from China to 
 Peru might be here accomplished by standing at a 
 street corner and allowing the mob to move past one. 
 Standing at a corner however would be an under- 
 taking of a somewhat formidable character. The 
 bazaars are narrow passages, the roadway between 
 the rows of houses being so confined that the 
 inhabitants on either side can, without much 
 difficulty, hold converse and shake hands (supposing 
 they ever did such a thing as shake hands) from 
 opposite balconies; they are thronged by every 
 description of man, and many varieties of animals ; 
 flies swarm above and upon every object animate 
 
316 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 and inanimate; the nature of many articles that 
 crowd the open shop-fronts are peculiarly objec- 
 tionable to the sense of smell; and the complete 
 absence of any sanitary or drainage arrangements 
 makes the air as disagreeable as it is unhealthy. 
 The people of Asia and Africa seem to enjoy it 
 sufficiently, malgre all these defects. They hang 
 about the shops where are sold the kabobs that one 
 associates in one's ' Arabian Nights ' readings with 
 black peppered custard tarts (very nasty lumps of 
 roasted goats' flesh skewered together these Tcabobs 
 are in truth) ; they linger fondly about the fruiterers', 
 where grapes, green figs, melons, pomegranates, &c. 
 tempt the passer-by much as Proserpine was tempted 
 on her first visit to a sultry clime; they crowd 
 about the vendors of cherry pipestems, narghilles, 
 fezzes, tobacco, and other articles, and are to all 
 appearance as happy as they are dusty and per- 
 spiring. 
 
 Here at Alexandria the overland traveller may, for 
 the first time, hear the muezzin sounding from the 
 mosque top the call to pious Moslims to come and 
 pray. Here he sees the Mohammedan, heedless of 
 passers-by, kneeling on his prayer carpet (spread in 
 the open street) and praying to Allah as the sun dips 
 in the western horizon. Here are Egyptian and 
 Turkish ladies of the harem walking through the 
 bazaar and peering through the eyeholes of their 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 317 
 
 thick veils upon a world that sees in them only- 
 waddling masses of many-folded linen mounted upon 
 preposterously large and clumsy boots. Here are 
 those Janissaries whose duty it is to keep the peace 
 and arrest offenders, and who act in both respects 
 with an efficiency equal to that of our own policeman 
 X, who ' runs in ' helpless bank clerks on the look- 
 out for a cab in the Haymarket, but too often 
 fails to ' run in * some individual whose idiosyn- 
 crasies have led him to break into a silversmith's, 
 or to arsenicise a father and mother, six children, 
 a cook, a housemaid, and a maid of all work. 
 Here is the cadi on his donkey, and here one 
 may well fancy dear mooning old Alnaschar with 
 his basketful of glass, and many other of the 
 dramatis personce introduced by the inventive Prin- 
 cess Scheherazade into her series of tales without 
 an end. 
 
 Leaving Alexandria, the route over the desert to 
 Suez formerly passed through Cairo, and the over- 
 land passenger relieved the tedium of the journey by 
 a visit to the Pyramids and Sphinx, and took a good 
 deal of violent and disagreeable exercise upon a 
 donkey of the Sahara. A little more than 13 years 
 ago the journey across Egypt was accomplished in 
 omnibuses upon a small scale, and two wheels, that 
 were supposed to carry six passengers each, and that 
 certainly inflicted as much corporeal punishment 
 
318 LIFE tS INDIA. 
 
 upon the unhappy half-dozen as the human frame is 
 calculated to bear without serious after-consequences. 
 The escape from Egypt was as difficult an undertaking 
 to the overland passengers of those days as it was 
 to the Jews when they effected their exodus from that 
 land of bondage. When the steamers were at all 
 full, the rush for a good place in the vans was some- 
 thing like the struggle for a front seat in the gallery 
 of a London theatre on Boxing-night ; the heat to be 
 endured in the vehicles was often a very painful 
 novelty to the uninitiated Englishman ; it was far 
 from certain that the conveyance did not upset or 
 break down half-way between two stations ; the re- 
 freshments to be obtained on the journey were bad of 
 their kind and, in the case of fluids, much adulterated 
 by flies ; and flies other than those offered with soup, 
 tea, beer, &c. assailed the wayfarer generally in such 
 numbers as left no doubt as to the failure of any 
 effort made to eradicate that one of Egypt's ten 
 plagues. The time occupied in this pleasant excur- 
 sion varied from fourteen to twenty-eight hours. 
 The passenger who started in one of the first vans 
 that left Suez or Alexandria had the advantage of 
 being drawn by four fresh horses or mules, and ob- 
 tained fresh relays at each changing station. To him 
 the journey was a matter of fourteen hours. But the 
 unfortunate who went in one of the vans that started 
 last, found at each stage relays of animals that had 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 319' 
 
 been used before, and accomplished half a mile where 
 the earlier traveller got over a mile. 
 
 At the present time Cairo is left several miles 
 from the line of- railway between Alexandria and 
 Suez, and the journey across occupies about twelve 
 hours. Although the improvement in point of speed 
 is not all that could be desired, there is a material 
 increase in comfort and certainty of arrival. 'Sooth 
 to say the Egyptian railway is neither the fastest 
 nor the best conducted line in the world ; and it 
 might be true to say of it, that it is the slowest and 
 worst conducted. From the senior traffic-agent to 
 the fireman, none of the railway employes appears to 
 consider expedition, regularity, or punctuality of the 
 slightest importance. Officials in fez and blue frock- 
 coat make a show of issuing and collecting tickets, 
 starting trains, and so forth ; but it is a grim pre- 
 tence of business after all. It is not at all indis- 
 pensable that the passenger should have a ticket, for 
 no one of the officials would exert himself sufficiently 
 to take steps against a passenger travelling without 
 one. It is quite a lottery whether luggage entrusted 
 to the traffic department is ever seen again. And 
 as for the trains keeping time, it is hopeless to 
 expect that, when the engine-driver may stop the 
 train for half an hour to run back and pick up his 
 fez that has blown off. Sometimes the train goes at 
 a reasonable pace that leads one to hope that it has 
 
320 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 settled down to its work in a business-like way ; then 
 it will suddenly go off at double express speed, that 
 must result in running off the rails were it to last for 
 any time ; and then it will subside into a quiet jog-trot 
 of four miles an hour, that admits of the train being 
 accompanied by Arabs, male and female, who offer 
 for sale hard-boiled eggs (the eggs often containing 
 boiled embryo chicks), unleavened bread, and fruit; 
 and carry on their traffic with perfect comfort to 
 themselves while the train is in motion. 
 
 But, although much cannot be said for it on the 
 score of expedition as compared with English ideas 
 of railway travelling, the line between Alexandria 
 and Suez answers its purpose reasonably well, and is 
 satisfactory enough to those who look upon it as a 
 temporary arrangement that may be immediately 
 superseded by the employment of the canal route, 
 and ultimately by some superior and more direct 
 railway system. The managers of M. Lesseps' great 
 work promise that steamers as large as the fine 
 vessels of the P. and 0. Co. shall be passed from the 
 Mediterranean at Alexandria into the Red Sea at 
 Suez in ten hours ; and if this can be accomplished, 
 the passage from England to India will be shortened 
 by nearly one day certain (the saving of time now 
 occupied in unshipping and reshipping mails, pas- 
 sengers, and cargo), and made many degrees less 
 troublesome than it now is. 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 321 
 
 At Suez, there is little or nothing to see except 
 the works of the canal, and there is not always time 
 to look at these. Embarked again at this point, 
 the overland passenger has the worst part of his 
 pilgrimage immediately before him; the Eed Sea 
 passage has to be accomplished before he shall reach 
 wider seas and fresher breezes : and he prepares to 
 meet the exigencies of the occasion accordingly. 
 During the cold-weather months, the Eed Sea loses 
 its terrors ; and at other times the fortunate travel- 
 ler may meet with a stiff head-wind that keeps the 
 temperature down to a reasonable point ; but for the 
 best part of the year this portion of the overland 
 journey is attended by heat that can hardly be 
 experienced elsewhere upon the terrestrial globe. 
 Few who undergo this trial can venture to dream 
 of sleeping below. Everybody wears the lightest 
 garments that he or she possesses, and as few of 
 them as is consistent with conventional ideas of 
 dress ; and in spite of every device to keep cool (or 
 as little hot as possible) it occasionally happens that 
 the Eed Sea becomes the tomb of some one or more 
 struck down by apoplexy or some other cause 
 arising out of an excessive temperature. / 
 
 Though Aden is not an Elysium in any way, the 
 arrival at that port by the outward bound passenger 
 is hailed with delight as the sign that the Eed Sea 
 has been passed. As for Aden itself, nothing more 
 
 T 
 
322 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 drear j could be imagined as the abiding place of 
 civilised humanity. Bare rocks facing the sea and, 
 beyond, the desert constitute the physical features of 
 this penal settlement for a handful of British troops. 
 Close to the tanks, and not very far from the canton- 
 ments, there is a small garden — the evening 
 promenade of the Aden exile — which is kept in 
 artificial verdure when water is to be had for 
 irrigation purposes. Elsewhere the eye searches in 
 vain for a blade of grass. The few trees and shrubs 
 grown in the garden are planted in mould brought 
 from the interior on camels. A rainfall — even a 
 summer shower — is a phenomenon that visits Aden 
 at rare intervals. Sometimes a period of three or 
 four years elapses without rain; and the large 
 reservoirs built to hold the fresh- water supply of the 
 place are often as dry as the rock around. These 
 reservoirs are the only lion of Aden. They are seven 
 in number, and of immense capacity. But they are 
 often useless, and failing the stock they should 
 contain, the inhabitants have to satisfy themselves 
 with the best substitute that is to be obtained by 
 distillation from sea-water. The voyager who lands 
 at Aden derives but little gratification from his run 
 on shore. About the only way in which he can 
 amuse himself on land is buying ostrich feathers, 
 and these, supposing that he requires them at all, 
 may be just as well bought on board. There is no 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 323 
 
 decent hotel on the shore or near the landing place - ? 
 the only caravanserai within reach being a miserable 
 pot-house, where no nectar is to be had other than 
 tepid beer and inferior spirits, and no Ganymede 
 appears save a dirty half-breed, who so far ap- 
 proaches, as to his costume, the Olympian ideal, that 
 he has upon him neither coat nor waistcoat, collar, 
 shoes, or stockings. There are vehicles that may 
 be obtained on hire should any one require them, 
 but it is difficult to see why the overland traveller 
 should wish to take a drive over a stony road 
 to see a succession of stony landscapes ; and the 
 conveyances — miserable equipages that would 
 have been considered clumsy and discreditable 
 two centuries ago — do not of themselves offer 
 any peculiar attractions to induce any one to hire 
 them. 
 
 As far as Suez the course of the overland travellers 
 whose destinations are Bombay, Calcutta, Galle, 
 Madras, China, and Australia, is the same. But 
 from Suez those who are Bombay bound depart in a 
 steamer especially appropriated to them, while those 
 for the other ports remain in company as far as 
 Galle. At Galle the steamers for China and Austra- 
 lia absorb the contingents due to them ; and 
 thereafter the residue of passengers is disposed of 
 successively at Madras and Calcutta. At Suez first, 
 and then at Galle, occur those partings that are so 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 heartrending at the time and so speedily forgotten. 
 Young ladies, who have in six days formed a friend- 
 ship with other young ladies that is to last for ever, 
 separate at Suez with the avowed determination of 
 corresponding by every possible opportunity, post 
 letters to each other at Aden, commence new epistles, 
 that are never to be finished, directly they have left 
 Aden, and almost completely forget each other before 
 the end of the voyage. Engaging, but unengaged 
 spinsters, who have formed a sentimental alliance 
 with youthful ineligibles of the other sex, exchange 
 vows of eternal regard at Suez, suffer nearly as much 
 from heartache as from heat in the Red Sea, recover 
 appetite and spirits in the Indian Ocean, and are 
 engaged to a general, or collector, or merchant, or 
 anybody of mature age and substantial income 
 within the quarter. And among the sterner sex, 
 Orestes wishes good-bye to Pylades, having given to 
 his friend of a week a pressing invitation to come 
 and look him up at his sheep-farm in Australia, and 
 accepted one to spend a week or two with Pylades at 
 his station under the Himalaya. But, then, these 
 romantic and short-lived friendships are not peculiar 
 to the deck of a P. and O. steamer or any other 
 craft. 
 
 After leaving Aden the man who is bound for 
 Bombay makes straight for his destination, but he 
 who goes to Calcutta or Madras has to pay Ceylon a 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 325 
 
 visit before he touches the shore of India. A few 
 hours spent in Galle are not wholly thrown away. 
 
 The place is pretty and characterised by a wealth 
 of tropical verdure that may never be seen elsewhere. 
 The view from the deck of the steamer is remarkably 
 picturesque : on the one hand, a bay fringed by 
 forests of cocoa-nut palms, and on the other the town 
 coming down to the sea, with the sea wall of the fort 
 in the background, and in the foreground the* 
 wooden pier and ridge of rocks that stretch into the 
 harbour. While at Aden the only local amusements 
 were being cheated in the purchase of ostrich plumes 
 or throwing small silver pieces into the sea alongside 
 the steamer for the Arab roughs to dive for, there is 
 here at Galle a very much more extended pro- 
 gramme. If our proclivities are in the direction of 
 commerce, we may buy precious stones, or stones 
 that should be precious considering the value placed 
 upon them, jewelry, ornaments in tortoise-shelly 
 carved ebony, and other articles, that aim more at 
 the ornamental than the useful. There is no 
 occasion to go on shore to purchase these things, for 
 within an hour of the steamer's arrival the deck 
 becomes a busy mart, and active Cingalese drive a 
 brisk trade with no better counters than the sky- 
 lights, the benches, and the planks upon which we 
 tread. There, are exposed diamonds from Golconda, 
 set in virgin gold, and valued at one or two hundred 
 
326 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 pounds ; and there, too, are exhibited diamonds from 
 Birmingham, set in virgin copper, thinly gilt, that 
 are offered for two or three pounds, and may be 
 bought for as many shillings. There, are the dealers 
 in the other knick-knacks above described. There, 
 are hard at work the money-changers, who take 
 every possible advantage of the stranger in the 
 matter of exchange. And there, are the eager 
 traders in ices, fruit, parrots, and other local produce, 
 who force their wares upon you until, in self-defence, 
 you submit to the trial of eating one or two very 
 indifferent strawberry creams, or ransom yourself by 
 accepting for future use a few melons, pine-apples, 
 plantains, Or green parrots. 
 
 On shore there is an excellent hotel, kept by a 
 limited company, where you can get a very tolerable 
 table-d'h6te dinner, at a table that can accom- 
 modate over one hundred people ; and where there 
 is a very good bar for those who patronise the cock- 
 tails, slings, pick-me-ups, I.O.U.'s, corpse revivers, 
 &c, of America, or the simple brandy and soda of 
 England and the Anglo-Indian. And he who leaves 
 the steamer may amuse himself for an hour or two 
 by visiting Wakwalla and the cinnamon gardens. 
 Wakwalla is a small garden house, four or five miles 
 from Galle, whereat, sitting in the shade of a grove 
 of cocoa palms, you may eat ices and consume other 
 refreshments (including the milk of the green cocoa- 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 327 
 
 nut), while you admire the view stretched out before 
 you. The house is upon a small hill, the ascent of 
 which, over a road thickly strewn with stones 
 (boulders rather than pebbles), is a work of labour 
 and time ; but the approach to it is through such 
 scenery as well repays the excursionist, — now through 
 a wilderness of palms, then by the sea shore ; now 
 through some picturesque village, imbedded in a 
 mass of foliage, then through a range of small but 
 splendidly wooded hills, — and the height of Wak- 
 walla once gained there lies stretched out below a 
 panorama of river, hill and plain, that feasts the eye 
 far more satisfactorily than does any of the Ceylon 
 refreshment feast the inner man. But even in this 
 scene of beauty the trader of the island is present. 
 Here again are offered for sale those jewels that owe 
 their origin rather to the imitative skill of Birming- 
 ham than to the riches of Golconda : here may be 
 purchased canes and walking-sticks of cinnamon, 
 camphor wood, coffee, &c. ; and here, as indeed 
 everywhere else in Galle, bunches of grass tied 
 together with one or two wild flowers (supposed to 
 be bouquets), or other articles of equal intrinsic 
 value, are held to be marketable goods, which the 
 visitor is bound to invest in. In other words, a large 
 section of the Galle native community is composed 
 of men, women, and children who cover their real 
 profession of begging, and its collateral trade 
 
328 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 stealing, with a flimsy cloak of trading : and 
 members of this class look upon the newly landed 
 overland traveller as a victim whom it is especially 
 desirable to prey upon, and follow him over the place 
 accordingly. 
 
 The spicy gales of Ceylon are so much a matter of 
 notoriety that a considerable amount of interest is 
 necessarily felt in the cinnamon gardens. Ancient 
 mariners have always made a point of sniffing the 
 aromatic zephyrs wafted to their ship from Ceylon — 
 over many a league of sea. Novices, under similar 
 conditions as to position, have done their best to 
 believe they smelt cinnamon and spice and all things 
 nice when directed to do so. And the spicy gales, 
 born of Ceylon, to be met with in the Indian Ocean, 
 have been, and are, as much an institution in all 
 poetry and some prose as the burning mountains of 
 Afric and India's coral strands. Strange to say, 
 however, the overland passenger who goes to Galle 
 falls in with none of these perfumed breezes. The 
 odours of the engine-room, the hold, and the galley 
 have it all their own way on board as the steamer 
 rounds to her moorings, and continue to predominate 
 while she is in harbour. Going ashore the passen- 
 ger escapes from the odours of the steamer, but he 
 searches in vain for those of the spice gardens, and 
 when, at last, he goes to the cinnamon gardens 
 themselves, disappointment is his portion. He ex- 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 329 
 
 pected to find a wilderness of odoriferous shrubs — a 
 labyrinth of tangled sweets ; he discovers, in fact, a 
 desert of gravel walks with here and there a small 
 oasis covered with a' sickly cinnamon or barren 
 coffee shrub. There are cocoa-nut palms in abun- 
 dance to be sure, and there are other specimens of 
 tropical vegetation, but nothing is to be seen of such 
 an extensive plantation of spice-bearing trees as 
 would justify the title of cinnamon gardens or in any 
 way account for the spicy gales aforesaid. 
 
 In point of fact, Ceylon is not, as far as the soil is 
 concerned, so richly productive as is often supposed. 
 Vegetation is rank enough and to spare in this 
 small tropical island, but rice and cocoa-nut trees 
 are the only useful specimens of vegetation that can 
 be said to flourish, and the commissariat of the 
 European residents is often uncertain and gene- 
 rally dependent on external supply. Butchers' 
 meat is frequently a luxury that can only be 
 obtained at considerable cost ; nor is the scantiness 
 of ordinary provisions compensated by such lux- 
 uries as oysters, brought from a point half-way 
 between Galle and Columbo, birds'-nest soup, or 
 seaweed pudding. 
 
 Having traced the overland route from Marseilles 
 to the last port touched before leaving India, we may 
 leave those passengers who are bound for Bombay on 
 the one hand, and Madras or Calcutta on the other, 
 
330 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 to pursue their way, unattended by us, from Aden 
 and Galle respectively. 
 
 Accepting it as a fact that a crowded P. and 0. 
 steamer is all mankind's epitome, let us see how the 
 overland passengers spend their time during a sea 
 voyage of three or four weeks. As we have already 
 hinted, eating and drinking consume a considerable 
 portion of the day. Tea or coifee and biscuit at six ; 
 breakfast at nine ; lunch at twelve ; dinner at four ; 
 tea at seven, and supper at nine. These are the 
 meals of the day, and at the moderate average of 
 half an hour each, they dispose of three hours of the 
 twenty- four. Sleep occupies a still more prominent 
 position in the day's programme. Lights are extin- 
 guished in some vessels soon after ten, in others soon 
 after eleven, and the passenger left in the dark has 
 seldom any inclination to remain awake at night. 
 Then there is no particular inducement to get up 
 early in the morning to witness the operation of 
 washing decks, and, finally, the gentle languor that 
 attends digestion, combined with the brain-churning 
 action of the screw or paddle, induces occasional 
 siestas after breakfast, or tiffin, or dinner, or all three, 
 as the case may be. Allowing that the passenger gets 
 up in time to secure his bath before breakfast (i.e. in 
 time to stand waiting for his turn an hour or so) 
 it may be assumed that he gets through from ten to 
 twelve hours in a state of complete or partial somno- 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 331 
 
 lency ; but even taking the longer period and adding 
 thereto the three hours employed at meals, there still 
 remain nine hours that have to be disposed of, and we 
 will endeavour to show how the society of an overland 
 steamer conducts itself during these wakeful hours. 
 
 Of course, at the time of leaving Europe the pas- 
 sengers are to a great extent strangers to each other. 
 The old Anglo-Indian, returning to the sunny land 
 of his exile, has consulted the list of passengers 
 beforehand, looking for well known names, and being 
 on board glances round to see if there is any face 
 that he recognises. To the Anglo-Indian of some 
 few years' experience it very rarely occurs that he 
 does not know some of his fellow-passengers ; but to 
 him or her bound eastward for the first time it may 
 well occur to see none but utter strangers around. 
 Jones, the Collector of Bubblinuggur, has gone on 
 board cheered with the thought that his old friend 
 Brown, captain in the Ahmedabad Irregulars, is 
 down on the list as a sharer with himself of the 
 delights of the P. and 0. steamer Jubbulpore ; and 
 as soon as Brown and Jones get together they 
 proceed to find out who everybody else is. It does 
 not necessarily follow that their combined informa- 
 tion should be infallibly correct, but the chances are, 
 that between them, they know a good deal about 
 half the people on board, and that before the termi- 
 nation of the journey they know as much as they 
 
332 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 care to ascertain about all. For instance, while yet 
 at Marseilles or Southampton, they have detected in 
 the pseudo Captain Podgers — a person of ultra- 
 military appearance, exuberant moustache, and 
 peculiarly belligerent swagger — -a travelling agent 
 for Messrs. Cape and Druggit, wine merchants, 
 whose only connection with the land forces of his 
 country was that which he enjoyed as corporal of a 
 volunteer corps of two rank and file, a drummer and 
 five officers of various grades. Then Brown points 
 out Lieutenant Filer of the 44th Dragoons (a gentle- 
 man whose loudness of voice and monopolisation of 
 the conversation might be tolerated were he a 
 Charles Dickens, and all his fellow passengers 
 holders of extreme back seats in St. James's Hall), 
 and breaks it to Jones that Filer was a ' ranker,' and 
 that having been promoted from the ranks, Filer 
 makes himself a public nuisance in his attempt to 
 assume a gentlemanly ease for which his only 
 training has been in the barracks and canteen. 
 Further, Jones proceeds to point out certain civilians 
 of various degrees and provinces, who are more or 
 less known to him; while Brown reciprocates by 
 indicating those officers of British regiments, native 
 corps, or civil employ, with whom he has any ac- 
 quaintance, or whom he knows by sight. But 
 then even an old stager such as Jones may be mis- 
 taken, and, for example, call attention to a dressy 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 333 
 
 individual of oily demeanour as ' a very nice gentle- 
 manly young fellow, you know ' — ' probably a young 
 civilian of Madras ' — when in truth the nice person 
 alluded to is only an apprentice going out to mix 
 drugs and retail tooth-brushes, &c. in a chemist's 
 shop in Calcutta. 
 
 But doubts as to the identity of fellow-passengers 
 are to a great extent cleared up in the course of a few 
 days. The steamer-atmosphere ripens acquaintance 
 with marvellous celerity : and people who never met 
 before in their lives when first they were brought 
 together at Marseilles, become, before they reach 
 Alexandria, sworn friends or ardent lovers. How 
 very rife intimacy becomes in the genial air of the 
 Mediterranean may be best judged from the follow- 
 ing little episode of real life. 
 
 There are seated at the saloon table of a steamer, 
 in the Eed Sea, three persons. One is a man of 
 mature age, loud voice, and unparalleled assurance, 
 who is going out to India, leaving a wife in England ; 
 another is a younger man, with much the same 
 qualifications of voice and assurance but no wife ; 
 and the third is a damsel of twenty summers, and 
 not too prepossessing appearance, who is proceeding 
 to India for the first time, to marry there upon her 
 arrival the husband of her choice. But what is the 
 improving conversation in which this interesting 
 trio are engaged for the benefit of themselves and 
 
334 LIFE m INDIA. 
 
 about a hundred other passengers ? Is the senior of 
 the party acting as Mentor to the others — pouring 
 out words of wisdom, the reasonings of the philo- 
 sopher, or the consoling dogmas of the pious 
 Christian — to which the younger ones reverentially 
 listen P They have all just parted with those board- 
 ship acquaintances who from Suez take their course 
 in another steamer, and for the philosopher and 
 preacher alike there exists the opportunity of 
 speaking about the vanity of human wishes, the 
 evanescence of human joys, and so forth. But are 
 the members of this trio moralising in this sort ? 
 Not a bit of it ! Rather it should be said that they 
 are im moralising ; for all three, led by the grey- 
 headed pater-familias, are talking about the objects 
 of their flirtations on board the steamer they have 
 left. The married man bewailing his lot at having 
 been parted from a young spinster who might have 
 been his daughter as far as age is concerned; the 
 bachelor bemoaning over his separation from a 
 married woman who was on the way to join her 
 husband ; and the fair fiancee, who looks forward to 
 being united to one man in the course of a fortnight, 
 talking much sentimental twaddle about that unkind 
 fate which sunders her from another man whom she 
 never met with until within the last fortnight, and 
 who has no more idea of marrying her than he has of 
 liquidating the national debt. 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 335 
 
 Happily acquaintance does not often ripen to such 
 purpose, or conversation assume such a tone as is 
 above described. Wives going out to India to join 
 their husbands, or coming home from India to join 
 their children, and girls going out to marry men to 
 whom they are, or hoped to be, engaged, constitute 
 no small section of the overland steamer community. 
 But the former are generally too wrapt up in do- 
 mestic matters to give their whole attention to a 
 flirtation, and, at all events, too prudent to talk about 
 it; while the latter, even supposing they had the 
 inclination, are generally too well watched by some 
 lynx-eyed chaperone to have the necessary oppor- 
 tunity. But the exigencies of the voyage inevitably 
 bring about some degree of intimacy between many 
 passengers of both sexes who were strangers but a 
 short time before, and we will see how, being intro- 
 duced to one another, the passengers combine for the 
 general entertainment. 
 
 Few are the voyagers upon that Eastern route who 
 are adventurous enough to propose any active amuse- 
 ment in the early portion of the day, Before break- 
 fast the ladies do not appear, and up to that time 
 those of the male sex are sufficiently employed in 
 struggling for their bath and through their dressing 
 performances. After breakfast ensues a period of 
 calm repose, wherein it is necessary for the smoking 
 section to indulge in a cigar or pipe, while the other 
 
336 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 section dozes over a novel or a piece of fancy work. 
 Lunch brings this period to a termination, but, 
 possibly only to inaugurate a new regime of pipe, 
 cigar, novel-reading, and general drowsiness. But 
 after dinner, and sometimes after lunch, people think 
 of what is to be done to amuse themselves after a 
 gregarious manner. Croquet played with flat discs 
 instead of balls is introduced for the exercise and 
 relaxation of the fair sex ; and quoits, bowls, and 
 bull answer the same purpose (besides stimulating a 
 little quiet gambling) with the ruder sex. Quoits, it 
 may be observed is the land game, only that the 
 quoit is a circular piece of rope, and the object 
 aimed at a pail. Bowls is nothing but the nine-pins 
 played on shore ; and Bull is a game the players in 
 which try to score a certain number (50 or 100) by 
 throwing leaden discs covered with canvas into 
 squares that are numbered 1 to 10. The bull-board 
 is however, divided into twelve squares, and, while 
 the numbers 1 to 10 occupy ten of these, the remain- 
 ing two squares are occupied by a bull's head. The 
 bull's head squares are two of the easiest to be made, 
 and the result of making them (i.e. of lodging the 
 disc in either) is that 10 are taken off the score of 
 the thrower. These are the recognised athletic 
 sports of the P. and O. steamer — these are to the 
 Anglo-Indian voyager what the cestus and the 
 chariot were to the young patrician athlete of 
 
THE OVERLAID ROUTE. 337 
 
 ancient Greece — and it only occasionally happens 
 that they are interlarded by games calling for a 
 greater display of energy or strength. 
 
 Cards, backgammon, chess, &c, have their 
 votaries and victims here as elsewhere in the world. 
 Old Dr. M 'Gillicaddam will sit down and play back- 
 gammon for sixpenny points with man, woman, or 
 child for any number of hours between 10 a.m. and 
 that untoward moment when the lights are put out 
 for the night. Dr. M 'Gillicaddani and cautious men 
 of his stamp have been known to almost pay their 
 passage-money out of their winnings — working their 
 passage, as it were, by throwing doublets — but there 
 are many less careful gamblers to whom this 
 tortuous method of winning sixpence does not com- 
 mend itself. There are generally in a crowded 
 steamer two or three whist parties, who sit down 
 occasionally between noon and dinner, and invariably 
 (Sundays excepted) during the postprandial period. 
 There are steady old players to whom a revoke or 
 a misplayed card is an offence of a far greater 
 character than any recognised by the penal code — 
 uncomfortable people who criticise the play of each 
 hand as though it were a newly published novel, 
 asking why that lead in hearts was not returned — 
 that queen pressed — or trumps led — with as much 
 solemnity as if upon the solution of the question 
 depended the welfare of Europe or the solvency of 
 
338 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the Bank of England. The whist-players of this 
 stamp play in an atmosphere of religions silence, and 
 whether the points be the gold mohurs of the Bengal 
 Club or shillings, think of nothing but the game 
 in hand. Then there are whist-players of quite 
 another calibre — happy gamblers, who look upon the 
 scientific game much in the same way as they do 
 vingt-et-un, and, trusting the game to Fortune and 
 four by honours, combine card-playing with all the 
 delights of conversation and badinage. To men of 
 this class, however, whist is not always as acceptable 
 as loo or some other round game that involves no 
 pretence at great mental exercise ; and so one finds 
 them collected six or eight strong for a turn at 
 Fortune's wheel. As long as the hand of Fate holds 
 them up out of the slough of complete insolvency, 
 grouped together in some secluded nook on the fore- 
 castle or quarter-deck by day and in the saloon at 
 night, they play loo (unlimited) for points that vary 
 from one anna (ljd.) to four annas (6d.). Men of all 
 ages and very varying means may be there. Col- 
 onel A. who can afford to throw away 2001. sits side 
 by side with young Cornet B. who cannot afford to 
 lose twenty shillings. C. joins the party with a 
 pocketful of gold and silver taken from his cash-box, 
 D. is there with a pocketful of cards for writing 
 I.O.U.'s upon, his cash-box containing no medium of 
 exchange more substantial than his own paper. 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 339 
 
 And it is observed after a few days that some of the 
 loo party retire from the contest and thereafter are 
 models of economy who defy the allurements of the 
 lotteries, &c. in which nearly everybody joins, and 
 deny themselves every enjoyment not furnished by 
 the steamer — from a run on shore at one of the 
 coaling stations to a bottle of soda-water. 
 
 That form of gambling which is most general on 
 board these steamers, is that of lotteries. An hour 
 or the day of twelve hours is divided into parts equal 
 in number to the number of subscribers to the 
 lottery : each subscriber draws a ticket whereupon is 
 written one of these fractional periods, and he who 
 draws the time at which the anchor falls or the 
 engine stops at the next port, wins the sweep. As 
 the steamer approaches the next port a good deal of 
 excitement exists among the sporting community as 
 to the determination of the question of time. The 
 fall of the anchor of the P. and 0. steamer BumbuU 
 pore might be the running of Pero Gomez and Pre- 
 tender for a 2,000 guineas match, so keen is the 
 anxiety displayed by betting men in respect of it. 
 Now A.'s time is considered the favourite period, and 
 A. is offered, but refuses, many times its original 
 value. Five minutes later A.'s period is out of the 
 field and has no market value whatever, even to B. 
 who has bought up more than half the tickets, and 
 stands to win 10Z. or lose 201. And so on to the 
 
 z 2 
 
340 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 fatal moment when the anchor falls and the 
 lottery is won; as likely as not won by somebody 
 who was made, nolens volens, to take a ticket — who 
 has never exhibited the slightest interest or hope 
 in the result, and who is now calmly sleeping in 
 his berth altogether unmindful of the windfall that 
 is his. 
 
 But games fail to interest or occupy all — novels 
 and magazines cease to be peculiarly entertaining 
 when read a second time ; and, accordingly, as soon 
 as the chill of British insular reserve has been worn 
 off, some of the passengers make attempts at combi- 
 ning for the public amusement. There may be 
 (there often is) a piano on board — an instrument 
 that is principally dependent for its approach to con- 
 cert pitch to the invigorating effects of sea air — and, 
 given the piano, some one is sure to start the idea of 
 having music — perhaps a regular concert — perhaps 
 a ball. It cannot be said that the music is always of 
 a very high order. Christy Minstrels mostly prevail. 
 There is a good deal of 'Just before the battle, 
 mother,' and ' Beautiful Nell ' melody. The audi- 
 ence hear quite as much as could be desired, even by 
 Mrs. Beecher Stowe, of the interesting men and 
 brothers, and women and sisters, who used to grow 
 cotton in the Southern States of South America, but 
 who now (happy examples of the beauty of liberty) 
 do nothing but vote the ticket and drink fluid as 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 341 
 
 much like pure alcohol as they cau get it. But 
 there may be other music. The passengers may 
 have their minds elevated by selections from operatic 
 gems. They may be told in the words of the poet 
 Bunn, and to the music of Balfe, how i When other 
 lips and other hearts ' do something or other (what 
 we do not rightly remember), 'then you'll remember 
 me ;' and, being told this in a feeble and uncertain 
 voice that ascends to a high note with a screech and 
 falls upon a low one with a gasp and groan, feel that 
 they certainly will remember the vocalist for some 
 time. Or, if fortunate, they may really hear good 
 music pleasingly executed. But on the outward 
 voyage mediocrity generally prevails. One man is 
 as good as another, if not better, when nobody's 
 powers are known, and everybody gives himself his 
 own character. Mr. A., who being asked if he can 
 sing, replies that he can a little, has a voice which is 
 a happy compound of the humming of a blue-bottle 
 in a narrow necked bottle and the groaning of a 
 stone roller upon a gravel path. Miss Z., who also 
 describes herself as singing a little, possesses that 
 amount of musical talent that enables her to pitch 
 upon a true note about once in a bar. And as 
 no one can very well say that he sings more or 
 better than a little, Mr. A. and Miss Z. start fair 
 with an amateur Santley or Nielsson. Once at the 
 piano there is no reason why the male A.'s and fe- 
 
342 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 male Z.'s should not retain possession against all the 
 talent of the world. On the homeward voyage there 
 is more chance of the performers being known and 
 less probability of female mediocrity being exhibited. 
 Mr. A., who nsed to say that he sang a little, has in 
 the course of ten years' Indian experience been 
 driven to the conclusion that he cannot sing at all ; 
 and Miss Z. (now Mrs. A. and the mother of seven 
 children) has quite superseded her employment of 
 singing by the more useful though less romantic one 
 of making bibs and mending infantile garments. 
 But outward bound the field for the exhibition of dis- 
 cord or harmony diluted is a boundless prairie, and 
 instances have been known of a grand concert taking 
 place on board one of these vessels, the programme of 
 which contained some two to two and a half dozen 
 pieces vocal and instrumental, while the combined 
 talents of the dozen performers would not give a 
 musical result equal to the qualifications of the bass 
 drum in the Covent Garden orchestra. It may be 
 that the concert is got up in aid of some charitable 
 institution — some useful object such as the relief of 
 the widows and orphans of shipwrecked sailors, or 
 some questionable piece of benevolence such as pro- 
 viding the beardless and bootless Andamanese with 
 shaving brushes and Warren's blacking — but it does 
 not always follow that the hand which is open to 
 charity is accompanied by an ear that is deaf to 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 343 
 
 sounds of torture ; and these concerts are, therefore^ 
 sometimes failures. 
 
 A ball is not so easily contrived on board one of 
 these steamers. Skylights and other fixtures inter- 
 fere with the progress of dancers, and the captain 
 and quartermaster have generally anti-Terpsichor- 
 ean views that regard the extinguishment of the 
 lights at the regulation hour as incomparably 
 superior to the idea of keeping up the giddy waltz 
 or melancholy quadrille far into the night. Besides, 
 there is generally a difficulty as to lady partners. On 
 the outward voyage, young ladies who are engaged do 
 not care to dance, because the Charles or Harry, to 
 whom they speed, may not approve of such a pro- 
 ceeding. Young ladies who are not engaged avoid 
 this lightsome exercise because mamma has forbidden 
 it, or because it may militate against the realisation 
 of some Charles or Harry who is yet an ideal. And 
 while of the married ladies, many who can dance, 
 will not : it often happens that most of those who willy. 
 cannot. On the homeward voyage the difficulty is 
 the same though presented in another form. Here it 
 is not ordinarily the objection raised by some Charles 
 or Harry in esse or in posse; but the living and 
 present obstacles of some half-dozen duplicate copies 
 of the once ideal : the ladies are almost all wives, 
 and many are grass widows; but to the majority 
 dancing has ceased to be a possibility — ill-health, 
 
344 ' LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the cares of the nursery, the veto of the absent 
 husband prevent it, and though Ensign Pipps (who 
 can dance everything from a minuet to a cellar-flap 
 break-down, but cannot write half-a-dozen lines 
 without as many errors of orthography) may per- 
 suade two or three giddy spinsters to whirl round 
 the deck and break their shins in his company on the 
 outward passage, he cannot cajole a dance — cajole he 
 never so wisely — out of the ladies who are turned 
 westward ho. 
 
 But theatricals may be attempted with more hope 
 of success. There are often stowed away in the hold 
 of the overland steamer some relics of bygone stage 
 festivities — a proscenium, a scene or two, some mis- 
 cellaneous scraps of wardrobe, and odds and ends of 
 properties, that remain as evidences of the fact that 
 former voyagers have attempted to propitiate Thalia 
 and Melpomene. Not unfrequently the doctor or 
 the chief officer, or the purser, is a theatrical planet 
 of the first magnitnde in the amateur celestial 
 system, quite ready to make the necessary arrange- 
 ments for starting a temporary theatre, provided 
 that he has it pretty well his own way in the man- 
 agement. But, failing this theatrical talent among 
 the ship's officers, it is generally found that some 
 five or six of the passengers are (from their own 
 modest estimate of their capabilities) just so many 
 Garricks or Listons, Tooles or Sotherns who only 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 345 
 
 require practice in prominent parts to bring out 
 dramatic powers that shall electrify the world. Un- 
 happily they have not had the desired opportunity 
 hitherto. Captain Flats, who has been an amateur 
 performer ever since he joined his regiment as 
 ensign, has never been cast by the manager of his 
 regimental corps dramatique for any part more 
 honourable than that of ' a corporal of the guard ' or 
 a footman with two lines to speak and seventeen 
 exits and entrances to make in silence. Lieutenant 
 Grooves, with slightly superior qualifications, has 
 only been permitted to undertake a miscellaneous 
 and generally useful line, ranging from the young 
 walking gentleman in a very tight frock coat, very 
 white trowsers and a very brilliant necktie, to the 
 heavy father, who persists in wearing the habiliments 
 of his grandfather, who always carries a walking 
 crutch behind his back, as if he were perpetually 
 trying to put it into his pocket, or practising difficult 
 billiard hazards with it, and who infallibly winds up 
 the farce by blessing everybody and giving away two 
 or three million sterling. And Mr. Drop, Deputy 
 Collector of Bubblighar, has only been admitted to 
 play third-rate parts upon the stage of Bubblighar, 
 simply because the limited nature of Bubblighar 
 society made it inevitable to have him or nobody. 
 But Flats, Grooves, and Drop, among strangers to 
 whom their capacity is unknown, are leading spirits 
 
346 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 in the theatrical department. They talk know- 
 ingly of by-play, stage business, and the rest of the 
 stage technicalities, and are all ready to cast any 
 play in which they are allowed to assume the lead- 
 ing role. Strangers are completely deceived by the 
 glibness of these theatrical impostors, and accede to 
 their proposals with little or no demur. Generally, 
 the pieces selected are those farces of Maddison 
 Morton's that are almost invariably written for one 
 player — the dramatis persona? consisting of one 
 character for Buckstone or Charles Mathews and 
 three or four dummies that, except for the accident 
 of having to speak occasionally, might as well be 
 played by marionettes. Flats will select ' Cool as a 
 Cucumber,' and cast himself for Plumper, and unless 
 Grooves or Drop be present to dispute this fiat, Flats 
 will carry his point and drive the audience mad by 
 his insipid rendering of a part that the greatest 
 histronic power can only make tolerable. For 
 amateurs of the Flats tribe believe implicitly in the 
 Mortonian farce. The fact that many works by that 
 playwright are nearly the fac-similes of several 
 others does not disturb the faith that Flats places in 
 them. Flats goes on repeating those trite quota- 
 tions, e in my mind's eye, Horatio,' &c, that occur 
 so frequently, or reiterates those oft recurring jokes 
 that turn upon some mutilation of the Queen's 
 English, without feeling that they ever pall upon 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 347 
 
 himself or can possibly pall upon other people. 
 When Flats in a condition of stage excitement, 
 having to say ' pork chops and artichokes/ speaks 
 of ' hork chops and partichokes ' and then hurriedly 
 corrects it into ' chork pops and chartipokes ' — 
 Flats believes that he has uttered something that 
 is an exquisite jest ; and is disappointed if every- 
 body does not see it in the same light. But an 
 audience composed of overland passengers is gene- 
 rally an indulgent one. It is hardly possible to 
 deal otherwise than leniently with an actor who 
 rehearses c Cool as a Cucumber ' in the Red Sea 
 when the heat makes the very mention of coolness 
 a hollow mockery ; and where there is so little 
 of amusement it is something like entertain- 
 ment to laugh at, if we cannot laugh with, the 
 players who strut their hour upon the stage of the 
 steamer. 
 
 In this wise is beguiled the time occupied in the 
 journey between Europe and India, and though our 
 remarks have been more directly aimed at the out- 
 ward bound voyage they are to a great extent applic- 
 able to the homeward trip also* There is a marked 
 difference in the character of the living freight of 
 the eastward and westward bound steamer, but the 
 nature of the daily life of the passengers is just the 
 same whichever way the prow may be directed. On 
 
348 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 the outward as upon the homeward vessels there are 
 many men of from ten to twenty years' Indian ex- 
 perience whose Eastern career is not yet completed; 
 but while on the outward passage the remainder of 
 the party are mostly young ladies going out to be 
 married, and young men full of hope in the resources 
 of the yet untried East, we find on the homeward 
 journey that the remnant is composed of sick wives, 
 sorrowing widows, crying children sent home for 
 education, and men of mature age who have left 
 India for ever. But saddest of all the sights that 
 can be seen on board a homeward bound steamer is 
 that of some invalid — some soldier of civilisation 
 who has been struck down in the struggle against 
 that insidious foe climate — brought there on the 
 bare chance that he may survive the voyage and, 
 England once reached, recover. It may be that the 
 invalid is a wife who has lingered too long by the 
 side of her husband, or a father who has stayed on, 
 contrary to all medical advice, that ' one year more ' 
 that kills so many who might, flying in time, live 
 for some time to come. Brought on board, the only 
 chance for her or him is that sea air will bring some 
 degree of strength before the Red Sea is reached. 
 In the Arabian Sea, in the Bay of Bengal, and in the 
 Indian Ocean, fresh breezes fan the wan and sickly 
 cheek, and the heat is rarely excessive. But passing 
 
THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 349 
 
 through the Gate of Tears into the terrors of the 
 Red Sea trip, the race with death is a losing one, 
 ■unless strength has been given to endure it. Here- 
 away it is often a struggle with those in full health 
 to breathe ; people of both sexes make it the study 
 of their daily existence to discover the place where 
 the heat is least intolerable ; and men, women and 
 children crowd the deck at night — sleeping (or try- 
 ing to sleep) upon mattresses and rugs spread on 
 skylight, benches, and the planks. To sit in the 
 saloon without a punkah is intolerable. To live in 
 the small cabins below is an impossibility. And 
 when the season is at the worst, the feelings of sen- 
 sitive passengers, already sufficiently moved by self- 
 ish motives, are kept the more keenly alive by the 
 spectacle of stout gentlemen staving off heat apo- 
 plexy, from moment to moment, by the constant 
 application of ice and wet cloths to the head. Many 
 succumb to the trials of this melancholy sea ; and 
 the waves that we read of as covering the hosts of 
 Pharaoh are too often the grave of the Anglo-Indian 
 who looks in vain through the heat mist to sight that 
 shore which he shall never reach. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 8P0TTISW000B AND CO., NEW-BTRBHT SQUARE 
 AND PARLIAMENT STREET 
 
NEW WORK BY COLONEL MALLESON. 
 
 Just published, in crown 8vo. price 12s. 6d. cloth, 
 
 RECREATIONS 
 
 OF AN 
 
 INDIAN OFFICIAL. 
 
 By Lieutenant-Colonel MALLESON, 
 
 Bengal Staff Corps ; Guardian to His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore ; 
 Author of 'History of the French in India.' 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 1 With unfeigned pleasure we welcome 
 this work from the pen of a writer so 
 well known and so much admired as the 
 Author of the History of the French in 
 India, and still more so as the writer of 
 the brilliant Red Pamphlet. Three, at 
 least, of his heroes afford such interesting 
 and instructive subjects of inquiry, that 
 we shall have to devote several separate 
 articles (one, at least, to each) before we 
 can do justice to the theme. . . In taking 
 leave of Lord Lawrence we may con- 
 gratulate him on having so able and 
 eloquent a biographer. There are few 
 writers who discourse move sweetly than 
 Colonel Malleson.' Asiatic. 
 
 1 The work of writing this thoroughly 
 valuable book has been a labour of love 
 on the part of Colonel Malleson ; and 
 that his volume will be thoroughly ac- 
 ceptable to readers there cannot be a 
 doubt. Indians, resident or absent, will 
 find in it a picture of the experiences 
 they have gone through, mingled with 
 narratives with which they are all more 
 or less acquainted; whilst those who 
 have never visited the Land of the Sun 
 will find drawn for them, in vivid but 
 perfectly natural colours, the surround- 
 ings of their friends abroad. . . . The 
 whole of the papers are full of interest 
 and truthful portraiture. An exhaustive 
 Index is attached to the volume, and 
 will be found of considerable use to the 
 reader.' Home News. 
 
 'When an accomplished writer like 
 Colonel Malleson places in our hand 
 Recreations of an Indian Official as his 
 estimate of the character and work of a 
 number of the great men about him, we 
 may be sure that it is a pleasant book, 
 that he has chosen for his portrait- 
 painting amiable and noble characters— 
 
 that there will be, in fact, recreation for 
 the reader as well as the Author. In 
 this we can guarantee no one will be dis- 
 appointed. Colonel Malleson's is a 
 practised hand. His History of the French 
 in India gave him the reputation which 
 he has considerably advanced by the 
 publication of this volume, and we are 
 well satisfied that he still finds of all 
 occupations for recreation literary study 
 the most seducing, and the best suited 
 to sweeten hours of exile. . . . We cor- 
 dially recommend Recreations of an In- 
 dian Official for our readers' leisure 
 hours.' Homeward Mail. 
 
 'The Author of the famous Red 
 Pamphlet has long been known as one 
 of the ablest writers the Indian Army, 
 fertile as it has always been in literary 
 ability, has produced. The History of the 
 French in India was a work which ex- 
 hibited not only graces of style, which 
 were absent from Colonel Malleson's 
 early performances, but a maturity of 
 judgment and an aptitude for research 
 which gave promise of valuable service. 
 The volume now before us contains some 
 of the most interesting of Colonel Mal- 
 leson's well-known contributions to 
 periodical literature. . . . Three Anglo- 
 Indian warrior-statesmen— Lord Law- 
 rence, Sir Bartle Frere, and Sir 
 Vincent Eyre — find in Colonel Mal- 
 leson an eloquent and enthusiastic bio- 
 grapher. Two of the great native Princes 
 of Hindostan— Akbar, the greatest of 
 Mogul Emperors, and Scindia, the foun- 
 der of the great Mahratta monarcliy at 
 Gwalior— as well as the adventurer Som- 
 bre, whose romantic career, followed up 
 by the strange fortunes of his family, 
 has obtained for him a sickly sort of 
 fame, find a judicious critic and tempe- 
 
 London : LONGMANS and CO. 
 
Colonel Malleson's ' Recreations ' — continued. 
 
 Opinions of the Press — continued. 
 
 rate historian in the Author of these Re- 
 creations. . . . The latter half of Colonel 
 Malleson's work is occupied with a 
 number of essays much shorter and 
 slighter than his sketch of Lord Law- 
 rence's career. The late Governor of 
 Bombay, Sir Bartle Frere, is a man 
 resembling in his training, and partly in 
 his character, the late Viceroy. . . .Very 
 different in its incidents and its rewards 
 from the careers of Lawrence and Frere 
 was that of Sir Vincent Eyre. . . .Very 
 interesting, too, and equally well written, 
 are the essays in which Colonel Mal- 
 leson sketches the liberal and tolerant 
 policy of the Emperor Akbar, the rise of 
 the great Mahratta warrior Madhajee 
 Scindia— probably the most formidable 
 enemy, not excepting even Hyder Ali, 
 into competition with whom the English 
 in India were ever brought— and, finally, 
 the romantic adventures of the Alsatian 
 
 Walter Reinhart, who, under the name 
 of Sombre, became a mercenary General 
 in India, perpetrated the massacre of 
 Patna, a crime almost equalling in atro- 
 city the tragedy of the Black Hole, 
 founded a principality, and left a rich 
 inheritance to a family, which, within 
 our own time, has come to a miserable 
 end. Colonel Malleson will do good 
 service by thus pursuing the history of 
 India — so complicated and so little 
 studied— into its darker corners. It is 
 only by attracting attention to the pro- 
 minent features in Indian History, by 
 casting light upon the salient features 
 of their career, and making them stand 
 out boldly from the canvas, that it will 
 ever be possible to interest the general 
 reader in Indian affairs. This Colonel 
 Malleson is doing, and doing well ; and 
 we wish him the success he deserves.' 
 The Times. 
 
 Complete in 3 vols, crown 8vo. price 22s. 6d. cloth, 
 
 THE HISTORY OF INDIA, 
 
 From the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's 
 
 Administration in 1856. 
 
 By JOHN CLARK MAESHMAN. 
 
 ' The third volume of Mr. Marshman's 
 History of India concludes the work, and 
 we are therefore in a position to form a 
 complete judgment on its general value. 
 Its merits are many, as we pointed out 
 in a notice of the first two volumes, one 
 of the greatest among them being a 
 singular lucidity of style, which enables 
 the Author to condense history into a 
 sort of pemmican, without producing the 
 choking effect usual with compendiums. 
 It would be difficult, for example, to find 
 a more exhaustive history of the facts of 
 the Afghan war than Mr. Marshman has 
 compressed into tome 120 pages, or a 
 more complete narrative of progress than 
 the forty pages devoted to the Adminis- 
 tration of Lord William Bentinck.' 
 
 Spectator. 
 
 'Mr. Marshman's has the merit of 
 being a history which it is easy to read 
 and to remember— indeed it is perhaps 
 the only very readable history of India 
 
 ?et given to the public. Every epoch in 
 ndian annals has been more fully treated 
 of by Mr. Marshman's predecessors in 
 historical inquiry, but the book is ori- 
 ginal in offering in a moderate compass 
 a comprehensive summary of all the in- 
 
 cidents which are most memorable in 
 connexion with our control of the em- 
 pire. The Third Volume, moreover, 
 is especially, valuable from the fact that 
 the Author's personal recollections carry 
 him back to nearly all the great events 
 which are recorded in it. . . . We may 
 safely commend it to our readers as a 
 work which may be perused with advan- 
 tage not less by those who are familiar 
 with Indian history than by those who 
 are ignorant of the subject, and go to 
 Mr. Marshman as their first guide.' 
 
 The Times. 
 * We are glad to see that this excellent 
 and standard history is now complete. 
 Mr. Marshman is better qualified than 
 any living man for the work he has thus 
 brought to a close. The third volume is 
 one of special interest, and relates chiefly 
 to a period of which no compendious and 
 authentic history had previously been 
 published. Mr. Marshman's last chapter 
 embi-aces the Indian Mutiny and the 
 close of the rule of the East India Com- 
 pany. Lord Canning's administration 
 is only slightly sketched: the full history 
 terminates with Lord Dalhousie's go- 
 vernment.' 
 
 London Quarterly Review. 
 
 London: LONGMANS and CO. 
 
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 . 
 
INDEX 
 
 Acton's Modern Cookery 28 
 
 ALLEN'S Four Discourses ot Chrysoatom .. 22 
 
 Allies on Formation of Christendom .... 21 
 
 Alpine Guide (The) B 
 
 ARNOLD'S Manual of English Literature . . ' 
 
 Arnott's Elements of Physics II 
 
 Authority and Conscience . 1" 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson .... 9 
 
 Ayre's Treasury of Bible Knowledge 20 
 
 Bacon's Essays, by Whately <> 
 
 Life and Letteis, by Speduinu .. I 
 
 Works, edited by Spedding 6 
 
 Bain's Logic, Deductive and Inductive .... 10 
 
 Mental and Moral Science 10 
 
 on the Senses and Intellect 10 
 
 Ball's Alpine Guide 23 
 
 Bayldon's Rents and Tillages 18 
 
 Beaten Tracks 22 
 
 BECKER'S Charides and Gallus 24 
 
 BENFEY'S Sanskrit Dictionary 8 
 
 Bernard on British Neutrality 1 
 
 Bisset on Historical Truth 3 
 
 Black's Treatise on Brewing 2S 
 
 Blackley's German-Englith Dictionary .. 8 
 
 Blaine's Rural Sports 2t> 
 
 — Veterinary Art 27 
 
 Bloxam's Metals II 
 
 Booth's Saint- Simon 3 
 
 BOULTBEE on 39 Articles 19 
 
 BOURNE on Screw Propeller 18 
 
 Bourne's Catechism of the Steam Engine . 18 
 
 Handbook of Steam Engine 18 
 
 Improvements in the Steam 
 
 Engine W 
 
 Treatise on the Steam Engine .. 18 
 
 Examples of Modern Engines .. 18 
 
 BOWDLER'S Family Shakspeare 26 
 
 Boyd's Reminiscences 4 
 
 Bramley-Moore's Six Sisters of the 
 
 Valleys 24 
 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science, Li.era- 
 
 ture, and Art M 
 
 Bray's Manual of Anthropology 10 
 
 Philosophy of Necessity 10 
 
 on Force 10 
 
 (Mrs.) llartland Forest S3 
 
 BROWNE'S Exposition of the 39 Articles. ... 19 
 
 Brun el's Life ot Brunel 4 
 
 Buckle's History of Civilization 4 
 
 BULL'S Hints to Mothers 28 
 
 Maternal Management of Children 28 
 
 BUNSEN's God to History 3 
 
 Prayers II 
 
 BURKE'S Vicissitudes of Families '■> 
 
 BURTON'S Christian Church 4 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer 2^ 
 
 Campbell's Norway U 
 
 Carnota's VemoirsofPombal 4 
 
 CATES'S Biographical Dictionary 5 
 
 and Woodward's Encyclopaedia 4 
 
 Cats' and Farlie's Moral Emblems 16 
 
 Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths .... 9 
 
 Chesney's Indian Polity 3 
 
 Waterloo Campaign 2 
 
 Chorale Book for England 16 
 
 Christ the Consoler 19 
 
 Clough's Lives from Plutarch 2 
 
 Colenso (Bishop) on Pentateuch 21 
 
 Collingwood's Vision of Creation IS 
 
 Commonplace Philosopher s 
 
 CoxiNGTON'S Translation of the .Eneid.... 26 
 
 CONTANSEAU'sFrench-EnglishDictionaries 8 
 
 CON yiieare and Howson's St. Paul 20 
 
 Cotton's (Bishop) Life 5 
 
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