dom, scarcely fails to associate itself with some evil consequences or other. It is truly amiable in a prince to reduce himself in society to the level of his subjects, and engage himself actively in regulating conventional rules and laws. A danger, however, there is, lest by too familiar and close contact with those whom he ought to command and protect, and by too busily officiating in matters on which he had better be indifferent, he may contract invidious prejudices and form partialities, calculated rather to expose the infirmities of the man than exhibit the majesty of the sovereign. Notwithstanding his other virtues, he betrayed himself occasionally into levities and partizanships unworthy of a crowned head. The petty squabbles into which he was involuntarily led with certain of his own subjects,and the unworthy arts he employed to depress the Banker caste, have entailed everlasting infamy upon his name. The tribe of which many of the Seals, Mullicks, Dhurs, Deys, Dutts, Addys, &c., of the present day are members, and which appears to have sprung in a pure or mixed way from the last of the three twice-born orders of ancient institution, owes its existing degradation in Hindu society to the ignoble vengeance oi Bullal. This may probably be one reason for which the Bankers in a body subsequently embraced the doctrines inculcated by Chaitanya, and acknowledged the spiritual pupillage of the Goshayees as the lineal descendants of Nityananda. The system introduced by Chaitanya and the sectaries to which it gave birth, together with the lives and characters of its founders, would present very interesting subjects of speculation to Christian observers in the East.
Bullal Sen was not a little distressed to witness the jealousies and feuds, which distracted and disgraced the sacerdotal orders in his dominions. The descendants of the five colonists from Kanouj, many of whom had sadly degenerated from their fathers, boasted of their superior attraction, and behaved themselves with great haughtiness to the Saptasati,[1] or old Bengalee Brahmins, despising them as a vulgar and degraded race, and insinuating suspicions on the purity of their origin. To restrain the vain arrogance of the one and to raise the deserving members of the other, were necessary to secure peace and encourage virtue. To bring on a general reconciliation between parties so prejudiced against one another, was altogether hopeless. For extraordinary evils, extraordinary and almost ano-
- ↑ The old Brahmins of Bengal were not acknowledged to be pure descendants of the sacerdotal caste. They were reckoned into seven hundred families, and were therefore called the Saptasati.
