been working hard as tutors or curates upon a salary of 100l. or 150l. a year at most. Let those who are disposed to repine at their lot, look back upon the life of labour and privation which, in spite of all that is now advanced by the enemies of the Church of England, is the lot of by far the greater number of her members at home, and fairly one, compared with which, as far as worldly advantages go, the life of a chaplain of the East India Company affords a very tolerable share of comfort and enjoyments.
In this point, however, the clergy and missionaries are by no means singular. There is, among a large number of the English in India, particularly among the civil and military services, a ridiculous affectation of the grandee system, and an attempt to persuade others that they were great people at home. Often may men be heard prating about how they wish they had never come to India; how they have sacrificed themselves and their prospects by so doing, &c., &c., whereas it is notorious that full half of the individuals who compose the civil and military services in India, are better off, both in regard to their standing in society, and the incomes they possess, than they ever would have been in England. Those of the lowest origin usually give themselves the greatest airs. This affectation is, however, now on the wane; men have begun to find out that no one believes their pretensions.
August 30th, 1836.
No. LXI.
ON CASTE.
This is a wide subject, difficult to be understood even by those who have mixed much among the people, and gradually acquired their knowledge, as it were, piecemeal; and there are few subjects concerning which so many erroneous notions prevail. It would be out of the question to attempt to give in the limits of a paper such as this, a complete account of caste, and of the effects which have resulted from its institution; all I propose to do is to offer a few remarks, the result of many years’ observation.
As has been more than once remarked, if all the English in
