Cawnpore, took his ancient post at the colour-stand, where the salute of passing squadrons was given at drill, and on reviews. When the regiment was ordered home, the funds of the privates running low, he was bought by a gentleman, who provided funds and a paddock for him, where he might pass the remainder of his days in comfort; but when the corps had departed, and the sound of the trumpet was heard no more, the gallant steed pined, refused his food, and on the first opportunity, being led out for exercise, he broke from his groom, galloped to his ancient station on parade, neighed loudly again and again, and there, on the spot where he had so often proudly borne his beloved master, he dropped down and died!

Before the battle of Corunna, it being found impossible to embark the horses of the cavalry in the face of the enemy, they were ordered to be shot, to prevent their being distributed among the French cavalry. The poor animals, the faithful companions of the troopers in many a weary march and hard-fought skirmish, stood trembling as they saw their companions fall one after the other, and by their piteous looks seemed to implore mercy, till the duty imposed upon the dragoons entrusted with the execution of the order became unbearable, and the men turned away from their task with scalding tears; hence the French obtained a considerable number unhurt, and among them several belonging to officers, who, rather than destroy their faithful chargers, had left them with billets attached, recommending them to the kindness of the enemy.

We will conclude with an anecdote related of a son of a late church dignitary, whose taste lay more in the sports of the field and the "Stud Book," than in Cudworth's "Intellectual System of the Universe," or such light reading. He was on an important occasion to meet the Bishop of L- at dinner, and as it was desirable that a favourable impression should be made upon his lordship, his father begged he would be agreeable to the bishop, and do his best to draw him out, as he was strong in Biblical lore. Matters went on pleasantly enough during the early part of the banquet, our friend saying little, but watching his opportunity for a charge. At length a pause took place, and he thus addressed the bishop, the company listening:-"Might I venture to ask your lordship a question relative to a point mentioned in the Old Testament, which has puzzled me a good deal?" "Oh, certainly-most happy!" said the dignitary, feeling quite in his element. "Then I should be glad to have your lordship's opinion as to how long it took Nebuchadnezzar to get into condition after he had been out to grass?"

The bishop was not in his element.

T

VOL. XXXI.

SOCIETY IN INDIA.

WE are too much inclined, in these Western latitudes, to regard India simply as a great camp. The very name has recently suggested to us little but gigantic visions of tented fields and armed legions, with all the glittering and gorgeous panoply, the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war." The romantic campaigns in Afghanistan and the Punjab have familiarised us with the manner in which our expatriated countrymen fight and die for the benefit of their country; but how they live for their own benefit-how they eat, and drink, and sleep, and dance, and make merry, and kill time, and defy the climate, are things which few of us, unless personally interested in the matter, care very diligently to enquire. And still less do we concern ourselves about the manner in which the internal administration is carried on in that immense country, which Providence, for its own wise ends, has committed to the governance of the East India Company.

It is not our intention to say much here, save perhaps in the way of incidental allusion, upon the latter comprehensive subject. We have a few words, however, to say about Society in India. Even our military heroes are not always in a state of war. True, they have had a great deal of hard work on the battle-field within the last few years, and have found themselves in very strange places-places where the bienséances of society are not very well understood, and polite conventionalities are at a discount. The dungeons of Bokhara, the defiles of Afghanistan, and the "fabulous" rivers of the Punjab see little of the amenities of Belgravia and Mayfair. But at his presidency, at his hill sanatorium, or even at one of his large cantonments, the Indian officer is not altogether a barbarous chief; he eats and drinks like a Christian; he delights in silver plate, in porcelain, and cut glass; he sports patent leather boots of undeniable cut and polish; and he talks small-talk to the ladies as euphoniously as though he had "never set a squadron in the field, or the division of a battle known, more than a spinster."

And then there are the civilians, generally, not always, men of peace (witness the fate of Macnaghten in Afghanistan, and Vans Agnew in the Punjab, as narrated in the works of Kaye and Edwardes) oscillating between the black-coat and the white-jacket-the eligibles of Indian society; and, for the most part, men who, if not tied and bound by fetters of indolence, might shine at any dinner-table, or in any ballroom in the world.

These are the great "services" of the East India Company; but over and above these are lawyers and merchants-to be found only, in any considerable number, at the Presidencies-and a few miscellanies in the shape of clergymen, missionaries, newspaper-editors, civil engineers, and superintendents of public schools. The medical fraternity, -no unimportant class in a country, where, in spite of all modern appliances and improved modes of living, cholera does its quick, and fever its slow work; and livers run to suppuration with frightful rapidity— belong to the great" services," and are, for the most part, "followers of the camp."

Now, although the daily goings on of all these people under the

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copper skies" of India may not be to us matters of such grave political importance as a Caubul massacre or a Sikh invasion, we cannot help thinking, nevertheless, that they are things worth writing about. Nay, at this present time, when the whole question of Indian government is about speedily to come before the country; and not only are both Houses of Parliament, but the intelligence of the people of England is about to sit in judicial inquest upon the conduct of the Company's services in India, the moral and intellectual aspects of Anglo-Indian Society are, in themselves, things of grave concernment to us all. If Anglo-Indian Society be mainly constituted of corrupt elements, if its principal components be men selfish, sensuous, and silly-men of feeble intellect and strong passions, as unwilling to cultivate the one as to curb the other, what hope is there for the internal administration of India? If its revenue collectors are rogues, and its judges are fools; alas! for the happiness of the country and the prosperity of the people. Happily for India and for the character of the British nation, "times are changed and we are changed with them" since those days, when Lord Clive undertook to sweep out the Augæan stable of Indian incompetence and corruption. It is true that every now and then we are startled by strange announcements and revelations, which plunge us deep in meditations not always of the most pleasing and consolatary character. We are told that this or that Indian functionary has turned his official opportunities to private uses, and has amassed money (we will not say grown rich, for wealth of this kind seldom fructifies) by trading upon capital not his own, or bartering the patronage of the state; or suddenly, a Napier comes upon us with the astounding declaration that the officers of the Indian army are, for the most part, men of doubtful probity, indolent spendthrifts, unscrupulous gamblers, and altogether men not to be trusted. But when all these grave charges come to be investigated, it is found that they are only so far based upon truth, that, amidst very extensive flocks, some black sheep are to be found. It is a pity that they are not all white. But where in the East, or in the West, is official integrity to be found unbroken, official purity unsullied, by some instances of public immorality? The truth, we believe, is that, if in proportion to the extent of English society, instances of official immorality, civil or military, appear to be more frequent in our Indian dependencies than in England, it is mainly because greater prominence is given to them by the strictures of the Press. Many things form frequent topics of newspaper commentary in India, which in England are passed over almost unnoticed. If an ensign goes through the insolvent court, or a lieutenant is connected (perhaps unwittingly) with a fraudulent bill transaction, such matters, as soon as they come before the legitimate tribunal, are sure to afford subjects of animadversion to the Indian press. Indian journals have no parliamentary debates, or great public meetings, or cabinet changes, to comment upon; and are driven, therefore, to find subjects for leading articles among the social incidents, which two very extensive "services," from time to time, necessarily evolve.

The

On the whole we are inclined to think, that the average social and official morality of Anglo-Indian residents in India, is not below the common standard of British morality in other parts of the world. If the officers of the Indian army get more rapidly into debt, and more slowly out of it, it is mainly because they have less private property to spend, and fewer wealthy friends to extricate them. Officers on home

service, get frightfally into debt, and many a degrading exposure is prevented, by the timely intervention of a moned relative. Nay, young ofsers are not the only members of adolescent society in England, proce to that kind of activity which is called outrunning the constable. Constables are octron in the vicinity of grave colleges and solemn halls, no less adroitly than in the more vivacious neighbourhood of the barrack-square. The only diference is that in India the outruncing," for want of the interposition of some friend in need, who will bring the runner to a stop, and efect a timely compromise between the tip-staf and the fugitive, often lasts throughout his whole career. There are, perhaps, even greater temptations to excess in India, than in England, and young men, being separated more widely from their friends, have not the same advantage, either of timely counsel or assistance. But, on the whole, it may be doubted whether they get into more scrapes than their brethren at home, though they have not certainly the same facility of getting out of them.

Faithful pictures of Anglo-Indian society are not so common as to be otherwise than welcome. Many thereof have been attempted; but the likenesses have scarcely been recognised by those most capable of deciding on their fidelity. There has been a vast deal too much of exaggeration and miscomprehension. Written sometimes by men who have seen, hastily and scantily, only the surface of Anglo-Indian society, they have betrayed an especial amount of ignorance and presumption, in the manner in which, from individual instances, and those often of rare occurrence, general conclusions have been drawn, and the exception been mistaken for the rule. The mistake of the midshipman, who set down in his journal that the inhabitants of Madeira all wear black garments, because he happened to visit a family who were in mourning, is scarcely more ludicrous than many which have been committed by writers on Anglo-Indian Society, in connexion with such subjects as the beerdrinking, curry-eating habits of our brethren, and other things of graver importance. It is a comfort, therefore, to find anything resembling a "true and lively portraiture," of our expatriated fellowcountrymen, as in the handsome volume now before us, written by a gentleman who spent some years at Bombay, and has described, in a pleasant graphic manner, "life" at that presidency.

The social differences between life in Bombay, and life in Calcutta, or Madras, are not so wide as to call for any cautionary specification. In Calcutta, it is true, society being more extensive and many-sided, is split into a greater number of sets, but there is a generic resemblance between them all, and the distinctions are those, rather of tone and feeling than of social habit. The present writer, indeed, hints at the possibility of his pictures of Bombay Life not being altogether true transcripts of society at the other presidencies. Speaking for example of the conversational toue of Bombay, he says:—

"Although we do not pretend to say that the general tone of conversational society in India, could stand any competition with the full flow of talk,' which the literary circles of London exhibit, yet we have no hesitation in unscrupulously stating that it is incomparably superior to what is usually met with in the provincial coteries of England. This assertion is referable to the before-mentioned fact, that every

"Life in Bombay and the Neighbouring Outstations." 8vo. 1852.}

one is, in a measure, an educated man before he sets his foot upon the shores of Bombay. We do not answer for the other presidencies; we know nothing of them, and it is highly probable that Calcutta alone may offer a wider field for the incursion of penniless speculators who, in the engrossing pursuit of riches, have neither time nor inclination to remedy the deficiencies caused by early neglect; and when at length the acquisition of wealth may entitle them to enter the precincts of society, their uncultivated minds can shed no lustre upon the scenes which they frequent, but they do not adorn. We are merely supposing the possibility of the case, as deducible from the actual insignificance of Bombay, when compared with Calcutta, and the consequent slighter inducement which it offers as a settling point to the needy and ignorant adventurer."

The conjecture, however, though a not unreasonable one, is hardly borne out by the fact. These adventurers do not exist in Calcutta, to such an extent as to have any effect upon the general tone of society. The character of the conversation current among the upper classes of the superior presidency, assuredly is not inferior to that which may be heard at the minor settlements; and we entirely agree with the present writer in his estimate of its quality, as compared with ordinary conversation at home. Take it for all in all, the average intelligence of Anglo-Indian Society, is equal to that of any in the world. To the establishment of steam-communication with the mother country, our Anglo-Indian residents owe it, that they are little more than a month behind their brethren at home, in their acquaintance with European politics and literature; and from the very regular and continuous mode of receiving their intelligence by fortnightly instalments, they are probably more accurately informed on all its leading points, than those who skim their newspapers every day. We have more than once heard returned Indians express their surprise at finding themselves so little behind their stay-at-home brothers and sisters, in their knowledge of the current literature of the day. Nay, indeed, they sometimes find themselves abolutely in advance of those who have been sitting drowsily by their own firesides, whilst the Indian exile has been enjoying the new volumes of history and biography, brought to himself or to his book-club, by the Overland Mail. It is as much an object of eager inquiry in Calcutta as in London, "when Macaulay's next volumes are to appear;" and there is more of a literary tone generally, in ordinary social conversation than is to be found anywhere in England out of acknowledged literary circles. We are glad that the present writer has commented upon this. His remarks will go some way to remove a very erroneous impression that is abroad, relating to the general intelligence of the English in the East.

Of the amenities of social life in Bombay, the writer gives us a less certain account. His general descriptions are sufficiently favourable; but his illustrative anecdotes are sometimes of a rather antagonistic character. The morning visits, the evening drives, the dinner-parties, the Government House balls, the picnics to Elephanta, the periodical migrations to the refreshing regions of Mahabuleshwar, which make up the sum of social life in Bombay, are here described in an easy and vivacious manner, and, with the exception of a few apocryphal anecdotes, with every appearance of truth. Since the appearance of Maria Graham's well-known letters, we do not remember any pleasanter