Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/124

 Thursday, March 24. The Hindoo College examination, immediately after breakfast, in the Marble Hall at Government House—prizes for the boys; and then they recited English poems, and acted scenes out of Shakespeare. There are forty-five of them, some of the very highest caste, and every respectable native in Calcutta comes to the show. The great shoe question makes a great heart-burning in society. Sir C. Metcalfe never allowed the natives to come with their shoes on. There is a large class here, who say the natives are now sufficiently well-informed to feel the degradation very sensibly, and who wish the natives to adopt European manners as much as possible. George has taken up that opinion, and the charm of being allowed to come before the Governor-General in shoes brought an immense concourse together—such quantities of new stiff European shoes, and many of the men seemed to find it difficult to walk in them. There were some splendid dresses among them, and some beautiful turbans, that would have made Madame Carson’s fortune, but most of them were in white muslin dresses. It was much the prettiest sight I have seen in Calcutta,