there were some who imagined that, without such adjuncts, the duties of hospitality could not be properly performed. What would the European of the present day think if, when about to enter the house of a friend, in quest of his hospitality, he were to be met in the compound by his host, attended by a troop of dancing-girls? We may venture to say, that a large number even of our Indian readers have never seen a troop of dancing-girls. The English gentleman who were now to entertain his guests with this well-nigh exploded abomination, would infamize himself in the opinion of the majority of his countrymen; and none, by attending such exhibitions at the houses of the native gentry, raise themselves much in the estimation of their brethren. The more respectable portion of the British community scrupulously abstain from attending the nautches, which, even in our recollection, were graced by the presence of many of the first gentlemen, aye, and ladies, in India. The holiday and other nautches now given by some native gentlemen are attended only by natives, and such less reputable Europeans as have little or no character to lose.

But to return from this not irrelevant digression. There are few, if any, of our readers, whether in this country or in England, who have not heard much and read much on the subjecof female adventurers and the marriage-market, and young ladies going out to India on what was vulgarly called “a spec.” All this is quite swept away. There are young ladies in every part of India; but the question of what they are doing there may be answered without reference to the marriage-mart. In most cases they are found in our Indian stations for the same reason that other young ladies may be found in London, or Liverpool, or Exeter-simply because when in these places they are in their proper homes. Adventuresses there are none. The race has altogether died out, since the time when Capt. Williamson set down, as a fact worthy of record, that a young lady, on first arriving in India, "should have friends to receive her." We should as soon think of writing, in the present day, that she should have shoes to her feet. The passage in the Vade Mecum to which we refer, will be curious at least to our younger readers :

"It should be understood, that the generality of young ladies, though they may certainly comply with the will of their parents, are by no means partial to visiting India. The outfit is not a trifle; no lady can be landed there, under respectable circumstances throughout, for less than £500. Then, again, she should have friends to receive her; for she cannot else obtain even a lodging, or the means of procuring subsistence. It is not like a trip, per hoy, to Margate, where nothing but a well-lined purse is requisite; and where, if you do not meet with friends, you may easily form acquaintances. Let us, however, sup pose all these things to be done; and that some worthy dame welcomes the fair adventurer to her house, with the friendly intention of affording an asylum, until some stray bachelor may bear away the prize. We have known some instances of this, and, in particular, of a lady making it, in a manner, her study to replenish her hospitable mansion with objects of this description; thereby acquiring the invidious, or sarcastic, designation of Mother Coupler.' But such characters are rare; and it generally happens, that those who have the will, do not possess the means, of thus rendering the most essential services to young women, who, we may fairly say, are in this case transported to India, there to take their chance! That several have been thus sent, or have thus adventured, round the Cape, cannot be denied; in any other country, they

would have experienced the most poignant distress, both of body and of mind; but such has ever been the liberality evinced towards this class of unfortunate persons, that, in most instances, prompt and effectual relief has been administered."

Young ladies are now never "transported to India" to "take their chance." Apart from all matrimonial intentions, they have a legitimate purpose in visiting India. The taunt that they came hither "to get husbands" is no longer applicable to the class. When they turn their faces towards the East, they do so, not leaving but seeking their proper homes. They go not to dwell among strangers, but “among their own people;" repairing to the guardianship of their legitimate protectors, and occupying as respectable a position in the house of their parents, their brothers, their sisters, as though they had never left the narrow precincts of their own island. Every cold season sees the arrival of a succession of magnificent passenger-ships, each one bearing a valuable freight of fair spinsterhood-but one has only to run one's eye along the passengerlist to satisfy any doubts regarding the why and the wherefore all these young maidens have made the voyage to the "Far East." The history of each is recorded in her name. Nothing is left to chance, save such chance as is inherent to all human affairs. Capt. Williamson says, that the voyage to India " is not like a trip, per hoy, to Margate, where nothing but a well-lined purse is necessary." In these days, the voyage to India is quite as easy, and quite as safe, as the voyage to Margate, and the well-lined purse is not necessary at all. Much has been written on the subject of the mercenary character of “Indian marriages." In old times it was believed to be, and in many instances it undoubtedly was, the fact, that a young lady, carrying to India her stock of charms, put them up to the highest bidder. One has still a sort of vague confused idea of the old associations connected with those two significant words, “Indian marriages," as though they were the veriest sacrifices at the altar of Mammon, which cruelty and avarice ever plotted together to accomplish. Blooming youth and sallow wrinkled age departing as yoke-fellows, to be a torment one to the other, through long years of jealousy and distrust, and mutual reproaches; loathing on one side, crooked spite on the other; to end, perhaps, in guilt and desertion. The young maiden bought an establishment, it was thought, with her rosy cheeks and her bright eyes; she bartered the freshness of her young affections for gold and jewels; and woke, after a brief dream of glittering and heartless extravagance, to the true value of the splendid misery for which she had sacrificed her youth. Then there were years of pining discontent; of fruitless self-upbraiding; luxury and profusion, as adjuncts of happiness, estimated at their true worth; then, perhaps, an old affection revived; the temptation; the opportunity; the fall; the abasement;-and this, it was thought, was an Indian marriage. Such Indian marriages there have been-and such English marriages there have been. There has been a world of blooming youth-of pure affections-sacrificed ere now in all the countries of the earth; but, perhaps, these sacrifices are rarer, now-a-days, among the English in India, than among our brethren on any part of the globe.

Men marry earlier here than at home; and few are the marriages which are not, at least, marriages with liking. Very, very seldom is an old man seen standing at the altar with a youthful bride. There are more young couples to be seen in India than in the corresponding ranks of life at home; and not only Asiat.Journ.N.S.VoL.IV.No.22. 2 Z

do young ladies themselves, but their parents, or other guardians, seem well content, in these more reasonable times, with the prospect of increasing comfort and affluence, as years advance (even though there be some slight struggles at starting), which every Indian marriage seems to present. Perhaps, take them for all in all, these Indian marriages are productive of as much happiness as matrimony, with its many blessings, can afford. There are evils almost inseparable from them, unknown at home; but there are privileges and immunities too, unknown at home-and the balance is pretty equally struck. Constancy and affection are plants which thrive as luxuriantly among us, as among our brethren in the West; and this, too, though in many instances the parties, before marriage, have had but small experience of the character and conduct of each. The acquaintance which leads to the contract is often slight; and this considered, appears strange that incompatibility, with all its attendant evils, does not more frequently overshadow the domestic life of the English in India; but in this country, husband and wife, being more dependent on each other for daily succour and daily comfort, sooner begin to assimilate in taste and feeling, and are more prone to compromises and concessions. Literally, we are more domestic. There is little, except business, to take us away from our homes; and a considerable number of business-men have their offices in their own houses. Men spend more time beneath their own roofs, and have fewer temp. tations to quit the family circle, even if they were not, as they almost invariably are, tied down to the circumference of a few miles as imperatively as though they were restrained by a tether. A man cannot, if he would, play the gad-about. He has no convenient bachelor-cousin in the country, no affectionate old aunt dying to see him at a smart watering-place; no opportune client whom he can suddenly find it necessary to visit in Scotland, about the third week of August; no neglectful or fraudulent commercial correspondent, who renders it advisable, in fine weather, to make a trip to Frankfort or the Hague; no obsequious medical friend to recommend a little sea air, just as an old college chum, who has come into his fortune, is about to start on a pleasant little yacht cruise in the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Separation, when it comes, is enforced separation. Stern necessity brings it about. The wife is compelled by ill-health to seek a more congenial climate; or the husband is ordered off, on active service. These separations are often painful in themselves; still more painful in their results. Did our limits suffer us, and did the nature of this article admit of such narrative digressions, we could produce many sad examples-not less painfully interesting than the most skilfully elaborated tales of fictitious adventure which the ingenious novelist createsof the misery resulting from this one great evil of enforced separation. Many a household wreck have the hills of Simlah and Mussoorie looked down upon within these last few years; many the record of misery and guilt which might be inscribed in the huge dark volume of the Annals of Separation. And yet, deploring, as we do, the many sad cases of conjugal infidelity which have occurred within our own recollection, we cannot admit that they are sufficiently numerous or that the contagion is sufficiently wide-spread - to detract from the general character of Indian domestic life. Let the English reader who may have heard some vague stories of the immorality of our northern hill-stations, picture to himself a number of young married women, whose husbands are absent, perhaps, among the mountains of Affghanistan, perhaps on the sandy plains of Sindh, gathered together in a cool, invigorating climate, with nothing

in the world to do but to enjoy themselves. Then imagine a number of idle bachelors, let loose "between musters," or perhaps on leave for several months at a stretch, from Loodianah, Kurnaul, Meerut, &c., gay, young military men, with no more urgent, and certainly no more pleasant, occupation, than to dangle after young married women "grass widows," as they are called-in the absence of their husbands; to amuse the fair creatures, to assist them in the great work of killing time, and finally to win their affections. Is it possible to conceive a state of things more surely calculated to result in guilt and misery? High moral principle has ere now fallen before temptation and opportunity; and many is the fair frail creature, possessing no high principle, who would, but for these temptations, these opportunities, have retained her character as a faithful and affectionate wife, and in after years been a bright example to her children. The immorality to which we are now alluding, has been the result of a peculiar combination of circumstances; and must not be regarded as a proof of any thing ricketty and rotten in the entire fabric of Indian society. We maintain, that that fabric is at least as sound as that of society in England; that the domestic and social virtues are as diligently cultivated, whilst, perhaps, there is proportionably even more piety and more charity than exists among our brethren at home; but we do not say that there are no occasional plague-spots to be seen on the face of society in India. Where there is flesh and blood there must be disease-moral as well as physical; we merely desire to claim for our brethren in the East at least as much merit on the score of religion, charity, and domestic virtues, as is assigned to our friends in the West. In some respects, perhaps, the common social checks operate more forcibly in India than in England; because society, though sufficiently extensive to erect itself into an important and much-dreaded tribunal, is not so extensive as to allow any member of it wholly to escape the observation of all around him. In London, the individual is lost among the thousands and thousands moving in the same rank of life, treading daily the same path, yet each man going about his own business, utterly regardless of the movements of his neighbour. He is but a particle of sand on the sea-shore; an atom in the enormous mass of humanity constantly in motion over the immense surface of the metropolis. Thus a man may, in almost perfect security, frequent the worst haunts of vice, spend night after night in shameless debauchery, and yet lose no ground in society. No one has seen him, no one has marked his progress but his sympathizing companions. Here, every man, who occupies any fixed position in society, is sufficiently wellknown by scores of his neighbours to render it impossible for him to escape detection, if he pursues a course of open profligacy-and difficult to escape even though he takes precaution to cloak the deformity of his vicious career. The character of almost every Englishman in India is accurately known to the society in which he moves. It is known whether he is a good or a bad husband; whether he is sober or intemperate; honest or dishonest; religious or irreligious; and although it is true that some men occupying a high worldly station in society are courted in spite of their infirmities, perhaps there is no country in the world where religion and morality are really more fully appreciated; and even these men high in station, whose rank and wealth cover a multitude of sins, are avoided by many, and secretly censured by almost all. That there are still some men in the country, principally in remote stations, who have a zenana attached to their establishment; that some few seek solace under the affliction of debt or the depressing influence of solitude, in the de

basing excitement of noxious stimulants; that there are amongst us men who, at the billiard or at the whist-table sometimes spend all the long night, and gamble for sums far exceeding their ability to pay; that acts of cruelty and dishonesty are occasionally to be set down against the English in India; that we are not, in short, even at this advanced period, thoroughly bleached, is undeniably true. But in what country of the world is the morality of the English, or of any other people, as white as snow? There are drunkards and rogues, gamblers and keepers of mistresses, in London-Paris-Vienna-everywhere, more obtrusive and more shameless than in India. There is nothing, we say, in the amount of Indian immorality, to give us an unenviable notoriety. Nay, indeed, the balance fairly struck, the scale of our offences will rise. Are the English in India less domestic than their brethren at home?-Enter their houses at any hour of the day. Are they less temperate ?-See them at their dinner-table. More dissipated?-Count the numbers who are asleep an hour or two before midnight. Less charitable ?—Read the long subscription-lists to be found in every public journal; count the number of institutions supported by private benevolence. Less religious?-Enter their churches on Sabbath-days; set down the numbers of families that meet, morning and evening, for domestic worship; satisfy yourself on all these points, and then let the answer be re. turned.

FROM KHĀKĀNĪ.

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