Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/52

 ; and that all officers are allowed to remit home to near relations a limited sum, annually payable at the India House. Surgeons are limited to £100, and assistants to £70 per annum. This may also be done through the paymaster with but little trouble and no risk, and in general at a favourable rate of exchange.

11. DEBT.—I would strongly advise every young officer to lay it down as a sacred maxim not, if possible, to live beyond his pay; and at first he will be able to do so only by great moderation and economy, but if he can escape that rock at first he may expect an easy course thereafter. Nothing is more tempting than the possession of rich plate, a handsome Arab, or a stylish buggy; no pleasure is so fascinating as entertaining one's comrades at frequent champagne parties, or taking a lead in the expensive gaieties of the fashionable world; and nothing is more easy than to raise money for such purposes; but all these he must deny himself for a time till he can afford them, if he would preserve his independence. Some are so far deluded as to hope to make money by horse dealing,horse racing, cards, and billiards. Perhaps one man in a hundred may succeed,but his notoriety is most unenviable!

It is a lamentable fact that a large proportion of Indian officers are deeply involved in debt, and that the monthly stoppages made from their pay