Page:Once a Week Dec 1861 to June 1862.pdf/495

26, 1862.] residence rank has its duties, which must be performed at any cost, and conversation with the wife of a gentleman of lower (official) rank would, in the eyes of this grande dame, lower her position! Such a lady, after queening it in Indian society, must experience an awful change when she goes home and finds herself looked on as plain Mrs., whom hardly anyone knows, and among people in whom her husband’s title of collector merely excites a vague reminiscence of a not very respectable-looking individual, who gives single knocks at doors, and demands income-tax, or water-rate! A good deal of bickering and heart burning is often created by this petty spirit, especially where rival claims come in contact, and she who arrogates to herself the dignity of being the head of the society in some station finds a rival contesting her right to the proud position.

But to see the Anglo-Indian society flourishing in all its purity, it is necessary to go up country to some station where the English inhabitants are confined to the civil, military, and uncovenanted. In such a place the virtues and defects of the several classes may readily be perceived by even an ordinary observer. Continually thrown into contact, as all the denizens of the place are, they get to know each other intimately, and the foibles of each are known and discussed. It is impossible to deny that an extreme love of gossip and scandal prevails, and is by no means confined to the weaker sex. Each station has its “Scandal Point,” where almost every one assembles on those evenings when there is no band. At such meetings even grave elderly gentlemen are not ashamed to indulge in the veriest tittle-tattle; and comments on dress, character, and actions are freely bandied about. But while acknowledging and deploring the prevalence of such a contemptible habit, we must confess that there are many circumstances which may be adduced in extenuation. Shut out from communication with the outer world, except when the anxiously expected mails bring a budget of English news and letters from home, the inhabitants of a distant up-country station have really very few topics to talk about, if they avoid personalities. In the daytime all have work of various kinds. Civilians their cutcherry, and military men parades, regimental work, courts martial, and committees (and in this last word is comprised a large amount of heterogeneous labour); the Indian papers rarely contain any news of much interest; and. to crown all, from constant interchange of ideas, each knows the other's opinion on almost every subject. It is simply human nature, as Sam Slick would say, that under such circumstances men should seek to render conversation interesting and exciting by a slight admixture of scandal. Love of gossip has ever been considered an essential characteristic of provincial society, and surely life in an up-country station in India is, Hiberuis ipsis Hibernior, still more devoid of topics of interest than the smallest village community in England, where every-day news is received from all parts of the world, and the newest books, pamphlets, and periodicals can be obtained almost as soon as published. It must not be supposed, however, that conversation is invariably of this trivial nature. Most men in India are well acquainted with the literature of the day, and many go much higher. At messes and elsewhere it is no uncommon thing to hear discussions on literary and scientific questions, in which considerable knowledge of the subject discussed, and much general information, are displayed. In such a conversation every one almost joins in the interest, for there are few who do not read more or less. The history of the country too, and the customs of the natives, attract no little attention, and the old Company's officer is characterised by a profound acquaintance with, and ardent desire to learn more of, these subjects. The languages of the country, too, are very generally studied; and all these pursuits prevent men from being entirely dependent on “gup” (as gossip is called in Anglo-Indian slang) for topics of conversation.

Old officers, whose memory reaches back forty or fifty years, bear witness to the great improvement that has taken place in the tone of Indian society since steam, the telegraph, and the over land route have brought England so much nearer. In the old days a white woman was rarely seen out of the Presidency towns, and few even there. Now, wherever there is a station, no matter how remote, ladies are found, humanising all within their influence, and preventing that degeneration from courtesy and delicacy of feeling that would infallibly ensue without their presence. To them we all owe much; and who that has read the narrative of the siege of Lucknow, and other episodes in the dark drama of the mutiny, will dare assert that ladies in India fall behind their sisters in any other part of the world, in generous courage and unselfish devotion! But besides the wonder-working presence of women, to the constant and rapid intercourse with home, we owe the breaking up of that mental stagnation and moral degradation that at one time was settling on so many Englishmen in India. Men in those days, on leaving the shores of Britain, severed all the ties that bound them to their country, and made up their minds to live and die in that land in which their lot was cast. When it took upwards of a year to get an answer from one’s friends, none cared much to write. Twice a year the fleet used to arrive with English stores and news, but the latter possessed little interest for men who were thoroughly Indianised. So they went on, working well indeed, but morally sinking lower and lower, till at last death, of whose approach they were reckless, mercifully took them away. It is painful to think of the lives such men led, devoid of hope, without any ambition that would lead them to aim at higher things, and who were finally laid in an obscure grave by men of the same stamp, or else by natives whose religion they had adopted. To turn from such a past to the consideration of the present is indeed a relief. Once a week in Bengal and Madras, and twice a month in Bombay, the Peninsular and Oriental steamers arrive with a load of passengers freshly imbued with English ideas, and divested of old prejudices and narrow-mindedness, by intercourse