out to them, in such a manner as shall quench the smouldering, habitual imprudence, which though it may never burst into a flame, yet consumes the heart of domestic happiness. Personal vanity is, we are persuaded, the prevailing root of bitterness, and it flourishes most in an uncultivated soil. Literary and domestic tastes have the immense advantage of supplying a woman's mind with that habitual nourishment which renders her independent of stimulants, whether gossip or flattery. The evils indeed that we describe as prevalent in Anglo-Indian society may be traced in a great measure to the low tone of intellect which generally prevails, except at the Presidencies. People who have lived for years in the remote parts of our Upper Provinces have become so mentally acclimated, that they are hardly aware how far they lag behind civilized lands; but those who arrive fresh from "the fine full flow of London talk," or even from the enjoyment of some of its branch streams, feel sorely the insipid, contracted, monotonous character of Mofussil conversation. The gentlemen are perhaps, as much addicted as the ladies to talking shop, (we know no classical equivalent for this barbarous expression;) but then the former have to handle subjects of intrinsic interest, which redeem their discourse from absolute inanity. For their fair partners, we cannot say as much; they too often come within the Apostolic category of those women who were "idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy-bodies." Indeed, what we remarked some pages back respecting piety, may be applied to literature in the far off corners of society; it is either pursued for its own sake, or it is neglected. There is no fashion or competition in the matter; very little credit is to be gained or lost by mental polish or rust. In absolute seclusion, the temptation is to slovenliness, and an indecorous neglect of the amenites of life; but where there is a society large enough to admit of competition, yet small enough for every body to know every body, the temptation is to excel in matters that are level to every understanding; table, dress, furniture and equipage. Writers on English life declaim against the spirit that prevails at home, especially among the mercantile and professional ranks, of striving to seem what they are not; and condemn the struggles and evasions practised by people who wish to pass for richer, younger, or, as the phrase goes, more respectable, than they really are. One would think there was no temptation to this infatuated folly among the Company's servants. The salary of every man from the Governor-General down to the drummer boy is as well known as that twelve pence make a shilling; the age of each individual may be ascertained within a year or two from the date of his entering the service, and it only required a very slight calculation to fix the age of a lady almost as accurately as that of the moon, even before Mr. Curnin's ungallant proposition to the Military Fund, placed on record the birth-day of most of the Bengal officer's wives. Then, as to employment, we all stand on a level, as serving the same master. Thus ticketed, as it were, and set forth at our proper value, we all might, if we liked, fall into our proper places like the pieces of a dissected map. But, in steps the demon of rivalry instigating many a mischievous prank. The Commissioner had such and such things at his table, and how can the Collector ask him in return without giving him an equally good dinner? The Colonel's lady gets her millinery overland from Europe; how then can the Major's wife appear in "country made attire." Pity it is that people cannot estimate the beauty of fitness. Moreover, in this service, we are all sure to take our turn on the upper steps of the ladder, if we only live long enough, and if we do not, still wilder is the folly of squandering the money that might provide for our families, not to speak of the unalienable claims of charity. After all, the most reckless expenditure can never gain a man even the paltry reward of being supposed richer than he really is; vanity, therefore, sometimes takes a different turn, and we hear an unblushing avowal, if not an actual boasting, of debt from people who go on without a single effort at retrenchment. A griff might estimate a man's wealth by the profusion of his establishment,—an old Indian knows better; and, when he sees the expenditure of people obviously exceeding their salary, he takes it as the criterion not of the money they have to draw upon, but of the debts they have contracted. Poverty is a sore evil; debt a still sorer one; and, where either the one or other has been inevitably incurred, and honest struggles are made to get out of the net, every hand should be stretched forth to help the sufferer. But it is difficult to express the indignation we feel towards people who see in debt no paramount obligation to self-denial; who go on living on other men's property, and then call themselves ladies and gentlemen, perhaps Christians !* * Let us not be understood to affirm that the majority of our service, or even of the military branch of it are in debt; on the contrary, within the last twenty years, a much more healthy tone has arisen on pecuniary as well as on other moral questions. The error, indeed, in some quarters, takes another turn In India, as elsewhere reformed spendthrifts make the most determined misers. Still, inordinate expence on one side, and inconceivable softness on the other, have created in India a system of relationship between debtor and creditor extensive and peculiar enough to be noted as one of the characteristics of Indian Society. We have read many duns and replies to duns that would be quite invaluable to "Punch, which are disgraceful to the society that countenances the evil. "but Doubtless, the chief blame in every such case must rest with the husband, in whose power it always lies to limit household expenditure, in military phrase, "to stop the supplies." The wife however is seldom exempt from censure; it is too frequently her vanity which prompts the outlay, or her recklessness that asks what is the use of denying myself this, when he will lay out twice as much on that?' Is this the part of a faithful helpmate? And may we not trace to these feminine habits of extravagance, (for every thing is extravagant that exceeds our income,) the financial imprudence which too commonly prevailed among the ladies who remained in India, when our army took the field in 1838 ? A stranger, fresh from home, accustomed to go into a shop, ask the price of an article, and either at once agree to the purchase, or if he thought it too dear, pass on to something else—such an one might think our ladies the most thrifty and economical of human beings, if he saw a committee of them assembled to examine the contents of a native merchant's pack, a cloth-dealer, a shawl merchant, a jeweller or haberdasher. Great is the strife of tongues; close the huckstering on both sides. Each lady boasts how cheap she got satin from Gopee-nath, or ribbon from Ramjee-mull. But bargaining is not economy, either of time or cash. There is a struggle, almost like jockeyship, between buyer and seller. The scene perhaps ends in the dealer packing up his goods, without having sold a pice worth, the ladies coolly observing that they did not want to buy any thing-they merely wished to see what sort of goods the man had. More frequently, there is no resisting the insinuating pedlar's "very new fassun," combined with his assuranee, Ready money not want. Note of hand Mem Sahib (the lady) give," and he leaves behind a good share of his property, carrying away in exchange more than one I. O. U. Perhaps he knows the value of little spicy morsels of gossip, to exhibit at the next house where he stops. Every body disclaims personality and inveighs against scandal; practically, however, very few turn away from the bait. 66 "Each thinks his neighbour makes too free, When General Pollock's army were on their way back to Hindustan, a Kapra-wala-cloth dealer-at a large station was exhibiting a sheaf of the aforesaid notes of hand, some of a very old date and for large sums. "How can you venture to * Cowper. give so much credit?" said a gentleman who was present. "Dekho (see) Sahib," replied the dealer, "officer all full-batta get they come back Hindustan, all very khūsh (happy) to see Mem Sahib look pretty-then she say, there is one little bill,-Sahib pay money." Probably some accounts were thus adjusted; but, to a quiet spectator, there is something very humiliating in observing the address with which native tradesmen play off the weak or unamiable feelings of their fair customers against one another, as well as the waste of time and temper caused by these bargaining scenes. We are inclined to believe that, in every respect, a lady loses more than she gains by such "keen encounter of wits" between her and a pedlar. While on the subject of unbecoming expenditure, we are tempted to say that we have often looked on a bride's trousseau as a very Pandora's box. "Weddings, mournings and christenings," as the milliner's advertisements class the three most solemn events of human life, have a prescriptive right to a peculiar costume, and really there is a tempting variety of garb for each occasion, that a lady must sometimes, when reading the catalogues, be almost puzzled to know which she would most like to have occasion for. Personal neatness, purity and good taste, we love-indeed we could hardly love a woman destitute of them; but these graces do not require her to commit the absurdity of purchasing for one occasion, what is quite incongruous with her ordinary habits. Suppose a wedding-dress ordered from Calcutta; the important day must be fixed with reference to the probable rate of Dawk banghy.-At length the local postmaster receives" an advice chelán (notice)," announcing that on a certain day, a parcel of a certain weight was despatched from Calcutta. Need we say how its arrival is watched? The "bánghy wála" (postman) at last makes his appearance "True to his charge, the close packed load behind, What examination it undergoes, especially if it arrive during the rains, as to whether the corners of the box have been bruised! what quick tearing away of the yellow wax-cloth wrapper, and what impatience till the bearer' brings the hammer and chisel to open the shining tin case! "Beautiful! lovely! elegant! so becoming!" exclaim the select committee of friends * Cowper. who are assembled to examine the interesting arrival. Very expensive, of course," adds the mother, "but then It is only for once." And if it be “ only for once," is there no bad taste in making a short lived exhibition which cannot be kept up? The chances, however, are that one expence will usher in another. The lady who has a becoming morning dress will not like to appear less advantageously in the evening. If she looks well in the delicate bridal array she wore during the hot weather, she "really must have something nice," for the cold season. Perhaps her husband's approbation may suffice during the honey moon, and possibly she may then come to her senses sufficiently to wonder how she could have been so absurd as to buy such an exprensive dress; and wish that she had the money they cost, to pay the merchant's bill. But in a very large number of cases, the trousseau is only the first of a long train of expences. These are homely and undignified details we grant, and we shall be judged misanthropic if we predict the ruin of a family from a bunch of wedding favours. But, "trifles make the sum of human things." A tolerably long and extensive acquaintance with Indian society has taught us that love of dress and show dries up the springs of charity in many a woman's heart, baffling every appeal to her liberality with the ever-ready, "I cannot afford it." Perhaps the propensity may not originally be stronger here than at home; but, in our Mofussil at least, it cannot be gratified without a larger outlay not only of money, but of time and thought than it demands in a highly civilized country. This was one of the points we had in view when, at the beginning of this article, we said that India fostered selfishness and inanity. Both of these evils are more easily supplanted than uprooted. Direct resolutions, or even struggles against a wrong habit, may be ineffectual, but the practice of an opposite good one can hardly fail to slacken the enemy's grasp. When a new channel is cut there is hope of turning off the stream from its old course. A woman who will resolutely devote a certain time daily to reading a book that exercises her powers of attention, finds both her leisure and appetite abridged for frivolous occupation. If she will appropriate a certain portion of her money to charitable purposes, and observe the good that it effects, she will thus learn somewhat of the true value of silver and gold, and will grudge the needless outlay on things which perish in the using,' of money that might bring on her 'the blessing of him that was ready to perish, and make the widow's heart to sing for joy.' A certain amount of attention directed to the ignorant and distressed, will open her eyes to her own blessings and responsibilities. The grand point is, to decide 6 |