This dependence was part of his magnificence and glory. Crowds of Parsees, however, continued to pour in from the northward; and as the majority had no claims upon any of the richer Parsees at Bombay, and as they rose to im portance from their own industry, the system of internal management, long ripe for a change, became weakened about the year 1800, and received a violent check. The higher classes were disposed to manage for themselves. The lower, who no longer received the same support from their superiors, were thrown upon their own exertions, and taught to trust to themselves and their own efforts. The consequence was, a greater degree of independence on both sides, which has naturally produced its benefits and disadvantages. The public, however, on the whole, is more effectually served, whilst the different individuals pursue with intelligence their separate interests; their increased numbers rendering them less fitted for being constituted as a caste, than when they were fewer and less powerful. As a body of men, they are resolute, and fully capable and disposed to redress themselves by force. They are already masters of the greater portion of the landed property of the island; they have a connection with almost every trading firm of Bombay; and are regarded by the other castes with some dread, from the ascendancy of their character. They have, within these few years, become less profuse in their marriages and general expenditure. They have imbibed, however, many of the simple habits. of the Hindoos. Their dress is not more costly; their food (they abstain from eating beef) is more expensive than the Hindoos, but infinitely less so than that of Europeans. The Parsee punchayet still, however, exercises some powers beneficially, chiefly in matters connected with their religion and domestic rights, and in which they have in their own hands the means of enforcing their decrees; but, as a moral restraint, its maxims and influence are nearly obsolete:

The Court of Directors expressed an anxiety to restore the power formerly exercised by the higher classes of Parsees over their inferiors, by means of their punchayets. It was found impracticable. Indirect influence, moral estimation, and long habits of voluntary acquiescence in the will of others, when once interrupted, were not easily restored, and least of all by positive institutions. The difficulty arose out of the increase of the tribe, the numbers now possessed of wealth, their independent turn of mind, and from the want of a good understanding among the leading families. It would be difficult, also, to enact an unexceptionable body of regulations for the conduct of their punchayets, and unless that were done, there would be food for interminable law-suits. The second class of rich Parsees wish to live and expend their money as they please, without troubling or being troubled by punchayets. The Recorder's Court was, on its institution, their favourite punchayet. The spirit that would have made them submit in preference to their own heads of caste, when they were a humble body struggling for existence, was gone, and could not be revived. Among a rich and numerous people, who have lost their habits of personal attachment and obedience, law must complete the submission, which opinions and habits no longer command. The schism among the Parsees at Surat was of a still more violent character, and they are of a more immoral and dissolute race than at Bombay.

No such emancipation, from the oppression of caste discipline, has occurred among the Hindoos at Bombay. Though there is less veneration paid to the Brahminical character, the power exercised by the various castes, which are very numerous, over their members, is still great. Each caste chooses its head, and two, three, or more assessors, who assist him as a council. Ordinary

matters are managed by them. In extraordinary cases, or where there is much difference of opinion, a meeting of the whole caste is called, who decide by a majority. Those who refuse to abide by the sentence of the caste are expelled This is the utmost limit of their power; but it is not small. The sentence affects the man's wife and his children, who are admitted to no intercourse with the caste, cannot eat, drink, or sleep in any of the houses of the caste people, and the children cannot marry whilst they continue under the interdict. On their submission, a trifling fine, and a dinner to the caste, are the ordinary punishments. In some castes they must be purified by a Brahmin before they can be re-admitted. Many castes in Bombay, especially the lower, have shewn a great desire to subdivide themselves. They have been left to arrange their disputes among themselves; the majority have sometimes expelled the minority, for the purpose of bringing them back; such disputes generally terminate in a short time by the two divisions acknowledging each other. Sometimes the minority form themselves into a separate body, select their council, enact their own rules, and are governed by their own separate laws. In no instance have the seceders, as in the case of the Parsees, boldly thrown themselves under the protection of a court of law. Such an example is alone wanting to lead to a dissolution of the influence of caste institutions. Such is the state of the population of Bombay.

In the provinces, the influence of caste institutions is still more inveterate. Throughout the Hindoo code, the superiority of the Brahmin over all earthly beings is in the highest degree inculcated; and the scale of caste superiority, and of degradation, is as rigidly maintained by the laws of each subdivided class. Brahmins are defiled in our gaols, if confined in the same quadrangle with Mhars, Maungs, Koolies, Bheels, and Ramooses,* though at a distance and in separate apartments; for to such persons it is not permitted to reside even within the same village with persons of caste; and while a Brahmin is cooking, the shadow of a Ramoosee is supposed to impart impurity, both to the Brahmin and to his food. Even the indulgence of allowing Brahmins to receive water from a servant of their own caste is not a certain security against defilement; since their servants are obliged to pass by sentries, as well as prisoners, of whom many are outcasts, whose near approach, without contact, is supposed to affect the purity of water. One class of Brahmins will not eat food prepared by the hands of the Brahmins of any other class, nor sit with them at any entertainment. Among the subjects on which caste rules are sometimes framed, and which are usually perverted to the injury of public prosperity, the destruction of private rights, and seldom calculated to answer any conceivable intention whatever, are the rules for carrying on trade and manufactures, such as that no individual of a Jummayet (caste assembly) shall buy or sell more than a certain quantity of goods in a certain period; and there is a district in Guzerat, where the population entertain the strongest prejudices against dress. In short, we encounter "caste and national prejudices, ancient and deeply-rooted customs, affection stronger than even the love of freedom," in every quarter, to discourage intellectual competition, and to enslave the mind. The natives affect mystery and concealment, dread the influence of evil eyes on their houses, families, and cattle, and are always suspicious of innovation.

Undoubtedly some change has taken place in the political condition, and some relaxation in the prejudices of the Hindoos, under the British rule. Their wealth and their comforts have increased; many of them have substantial

Uncivilized tribes of the country.

and costly houses, keep their horses and carriages, entertain Europeans, and, with that view, fit up one or two of their apartments in the English taste, the rest being kept in an unfurnished and filthy state. Some Brahmins will not scruple to visit an Englishman at his meals, even whilst he is feeding on a round of beef; and Brahmin children no longer hesitate to associate with Hindoos of inferior caste in the English schools. State policy has compelled Hindoo sovereigns to bestow their daughters in marriage on Mahomedan conquerors, and to entertain Mahomedan troops for the protection of their principalities; and Hindoo sovereigns have sacrificed their prejudices to conciliate the forbearance of their bigotted oppressors. Hindoos have often been seen bowing at the shrine of a Mahomedan saint, keep their festivals, and celebrate the martyrdom of Hussain and Hossan. Even the wretchedness and misery which are supposed to follow expulsion from caste are, in some districts, said not to be felt by the expelled member. All these remarkable deviations from the immutability of the Hindoo character have occurred, and some are manifest to the commonest observer; they, however, constitute exceptions to the general rule. If we look to the domestic habits of the Hindoos, to their village institutions, -which, however lauded by some, operate as a discouragement to competition and to intellectual improvement,-to their system of education, and to the existing state of their manufactures and agriculture, no change is perceptible; they are the same as they were centuries ago. With all their display of wealth in their houses and equipages, their expenses are extremely limited. The personal expenses of the most opulent Hindoo do not absorb one-third of his income, another third is bestowed in charity, and the rest is saved. The use of clothes and other articles of British manufacture, admitting the consumption to be greater than it actually appears to be, involves no proof of relaxation in their prejudices, nor affords any prospect or hope of an emancipation from the thraldom of caste institutions.

In fact, the policy of the British Government, in maintaining those institutions as the most efficacious instruments for controlling the moral habits of the Hindoos, has tended to uphold their influence; and the institution of caste has still a strong hold on their minds and actions. A Hindoo of a respectable family, not many years ago, indulged in the harmless frolic of attending a fancy ball at Bombay, in the uniform of a celebrated hunting club; he was expelled, and not re-admitted till he had paid a fine of £500. An appeal for redress to the Recorder's Court would have availed him nothing. Many instances have occurred of appeals made to our Zillah Courts against caste decisions, which have been reversed, and the complainants directed to be restored to their rights and privileges. The decrees of our courts have been disregarded, and the expelled members have been ultimately obliged to submit, and to regain admission into the caste by conforming to the prescribed penalties.

Notwithstanding these obstacles, the influence of caste institutions, their ridiculous and puerile inhibitions, and their unjust and arbitrary awards, must yield to the progress of education and of reason, and to a conviction of the more just and mild administration of the laws, through the medium of our courts of judicature. All such artificial fabrics are doomed to decay, when the circumstances that originally led to their creation cease to operate. Caste institutions are mutual associations for supplying the defects and remedying the injustice of the civil and judicial administration of the native governments. If the British Government abstain from giving aid to castes in their internal affairs, and refer all its subjects to the laws, the influence of that institution, left merely to public opinion, must, though gradually indeed, inevitably decline by

the mere effect of public neglect. It will be long, however, before much difference is visible in so vast a population; but when it does appear, the change will travel rapidly. Even the visit of Ram Mohun Roy to England, the spirit with which his conduct is criticised by one portion of the native press at Calcutta, and defended by another, and the discussions which are carried on through the same medium, on the humane and important resolution adopted by Lord William Bentinck, to abolish the practice of suttees, are all in proof of the growing influence of reason, and of the incipient breaking down of castes, or the "artificial and unnatural division of a people into distinct classes, which has for so many ages proved the most effectual method which could have been devised by the ingenuity of man to check their improvement and repress their industry."

1

- If we look to the character of the natives, and the great assistance we derive from their agency in all branches of the administration, we shall find evidence sufficient to prove that education has not been entirely neglected in India. It has, however, been of a demoralizing tendency. In diplomacy, sophistry, treachery, and perfidy are their peculiar characteristics.

The point of honour

is totally unknown to them; and good faith, at the hazard of their own imme diate views, is treated as folly." In other branches, wrong principles and narrow views prevail; peculation is considered, from the sovereign to the peasant, a venial offence; and the grossest abuses are occasionally practised. When, however, we fairly examine the question, and advert to the little encouragement which the natives have received under the British rule, to a faithful discharge of their duties, to the limited degree of control which, from the few Europeans employed in the country, has been exercised over their agency, our surprise must be excited, not at the prevalence of corruption, and the existence of abuses, but to the limited extent to which they have been carried. The scale must preponderate in favour of the general honesty of the native character. For the administration of justice, the natives have proved themselves pre-eminently qualified. The first step towards their improvement is to admit them to a larger share of official emoluments. In the provinces, they cannot be more extensively employed. In the judicial line they are entrusted with a higher degree of responsibility at Madras and at Bombay than at Bengal. It is only necessary to classify the situations natives are to fill, and to fix suitable salaries to each. This reform will naturally render a smaller number of Europeans necessary; but we must take care not to reduce it to too low a standard, for a vigilant control over native functionaries, and European also, is indispensable.

At the presidency of Bombay there are many situations which they would fill with advantage, and at the presidency the reform should commence; for there the natives of wealth and rank are, in general, from a constant and long asso ciation with Europeans, more honest, more intelligent, and more independent than they are in the provinces.* I have no hesitation in giving it as my deliberate opinion, that by re-constituting the Supreme Court, a Court of Recorder, the demand for justice at Bombay not requiring a more costly tribunal, the Madomedan and Hindoo law officers may be associated with the Recorder as assessors in all those cases in which the court is bound to administer the laws of the natives, and in the trial of natives for criminal offences. They should be admitted, in due time, to practise as attornies and barristers in his Majesty's Court. The Court of Requests at Bombay should be modelled ** The corporation of Madras was originally composed of a mayor and ten aldermen; three being Company's servants and seven natives, who were to be justices of the peace also. Asiat.Journ. N.S. VOL. 14. No. 53.

L

on the plan of that of Bengal, and should have the same extent of jurisdiction ; and if composed of four commissioners, two should be natives. They should be eligible to the grand jury. Five or six of the most respectable and intelligent should be appointed justices of the peace, and two of them stipendiary magistrates; and they should take their tour of duty with the European magistrates, and officiate at the Court of Petty Sessions, and at the quarter sessions in controlling the parliamentary assessment, which is leviable under the Act of 1793, for watching, repairing, and cleansing the streets of the town of Bombay; and natives should be eligible to the offices which are maintained from that tax. They should also be eligible to the second and third classes of civil appointments at the presidency. There are natives at Bombay fully competent to fill any of these situations,* with the exception of practitioners in the King's Court, for which, of course, they cannot be immediately qualified. The IndoBritons should be equally eligible to those situations.

Whilst we thus open to the natives the avenues to employment in the civil administration of affairs, it does not require much sagacity to predict, that, unless we similarly improve the situation of the native officers of the army, we shall sow the seeds of disaffection in a soil which also stands in need of improved cultivation. The native army was much more respectable, and our sepoys were more attached to the service, when we had native commandants of battalions, than they are at present. A proportion of natives of high caste and of education should be admitted as officers in our native army, with the prospect of rising to the rank of commandants. Our security would not be endangered, in my opinion, by the concession.

That the natives stand in need of a better system of education is undoubted. They are themselves fully convinced of its necessity, and anxious to promote its attainment. The readiness with which they have supported every plan that has been proposed for the diffusion of education, and the liberality with which they have come forward to establish one or more professorships,expressly for the purpose of extending a knowledge of the English language, the arts, sciences, and literature of Europe, is decisive of the fact.

Representations had been frequently made since 1815, by the Sudder Adawlut of Bombay, of the declining state of learning in Western India, from the want of encouragement and public seminaries. On the 28th of July 1824, they reported that the crisis long looked for had arrived. It was hardly possible to procure a Mahomedan law officer sufficiently qualified to perform the duties required of him; and no prospect was entertained of being able to fill up vacancies that might occur in the several courts. They earnestly entreated the government to adopt some arrangement, at an early period, for the formation of an institution for the better education of the natives, on the principle recommended by the Court of Appeal on the 20th of December 1817. Those representations were brought to the notice of the home authorities, but no. means were adopted for the introduction of an improved system of education. Not only were no measures adopted for that purpose, but by diminishing the salaries of the native law officers, the only inducement held out to the natives to study was thus unfortunately checked. Had their salaries been more respectable, there would have been no want of qualified agents.

In the consideration of this subject, however, we should never lose sight of the suspicions and alarms which the natives long entertained of our views in promoting education, which they conceived were solely directed to their con

*. A solicitor has repeatedly informed me, that he had a Hindoo and a Parsee in his office, who were as competent to perform the duties of an attorney as the majority of those who were practising in the Supreme Court.