The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 24, 1858.

We are still of opinion that the contemporary
who stated " that the peace of twenty families
" was of more consequence than the passions of
" one" has put the truth of the matter in a form
not easy to evade. The remaining articles are
all of that careful and thoughtful but rather
narrow character which usually prevails in this
Review.

We are sorry to find that we have less space
for the passages we had marked for quotation
from Mr. Murray's Quarterly than we anti-
cipated. Our readers will therefore lose some
very entertaining extracts from the article on
Blake, which we understand to be from the
pen of a very clever naval novelist, and all we
can afford is the following from the paper on
India, which rumour assigns to the late distin-
guished Member for Aylesbury :

The increasing estrangement between the English end
the subject population had long been foreseen and deplored
by our ablest Indian statesmen. During the earls occupa•
tion of the country there existed a double necessity to
mix with and conciliate the natives--a political and a
social necessity. It was by securing the goodwill and
sympathy of the people that we could alone hope to carry
on the struggles in which we had engaged with powerful
princes, and to extend our rule. We were almost entirely
dependent upon the natives for our knowledge of the
country and its resources and for the collection of our
revenues. We relied upon their skill and their treachery
in our intrigues and in our wars. We inU•usted them with
a large share in the administration, and an English
civilian did not then believe it derogatory to his dignity to
acknowledge the higher rank arid position of a native
officer.

The want of frequent and easy intercourse with Eng-
land, and the absence of female society, led to the estab—
lishment of social relations with the natives, and to the
adoption, in many respects, of their habits. It was the
Anglo-Indian of nearly a century ago who furnished the
type of the " Nawab," a race now almost extinct, that
fertile theme for ridicule and caricature. He considered
it no discredit to contract ties with the native women of
India, which the customs and laws of the country did not
condemn as either illegal or immoral. The picture of
Clive and his Indian family is probably familiar to most
of our readers. It might be considered invidious now to
mention the names of other well-known men who have
left descendants by Indian ladies, not undistinguished in
our Indian annals. Such ties were not alone contcacted
with women of mean condition or doubtful character.
On the contrary, alliances were formed between British
officers and some of the proudeat families of the peninsula.
Colonel Fitzpatrick, many years holding the high office
of Resident at the Court of the Nizam, married, according
to the laws of the country, a lady of the house of the reigning
sovereign. A dwelling of singular elegance, in the oriental
style of architecture, which he constructed fur her residence
in the very grounds of the Residency, still exists, although
falling into ruins. Her tomb is a place of annual pilgrimage
to the Mohammedans of Hyderabad, who preserve the
tradition of her virtues and her charity. General Palmer
married one of the liegums of Oude, and his descendants
hold the highest rank amongst the " Eurasian " families of
India. Colonel Gardiner was united to a lady of the Ira•
penal house of Delhi. We are now familiar with many
names distinguished in our former and recent wars, borne
by the offspring of similar marriages. In many an
'' Eurasian' house may still be seen a picture by Zetrany,
or some contemporary painter, representing a British
officer in the ungainly uniform of the last century, with
wig, powdered hair, or pigtail, drooping epaulets and yards
of gold lace, standing over a dark beauty, who, crouching
under the weight of pearls, jewels, and kinkobs, the
spoil of kingdoms, is surrounded by a bevy of dusky
children.

The Begum was then a lady of weight and authority in
the household. Through her petitions were laid at the feet
of the great man, and the thousand little intrigues, indis-
pensable to Eastern life, were carried on. She was con-
stantly visited by her family and friends, who were then
seen by her lord. Every one acquainted with India
knows that such alliances would, in these days, be no less
repudiated by the natives themselves than by their English
rulers.

So the natives mingled in the am useniqnts and sports of
the English. A series of engravings, which still adorns
the walls of many a roadside inn, represents the magnates
of ancient days, elbowing nawabs and rajahs in an eager
circle round a cockfight. An old Indian native officer will
relate how, in his boyhood, the Sahibs, before tbey
married " Mem Sailibe " and lived upon gram to save
money to send their children home, or to go there them-
selves, would take part in the rejoicings of the men, would
lend their horses and their elephants to swell their
marriage processions, and their tents and hangings to give
splendour to their great periodical festivals; how they took
part in their sports, and were frequently honoured guests
at their feasts. Then it would have been impossible for a
whole army to mutiny without some information having
been conveyed to its officers, nor would those officers have
been butchered without pity or mercy.
Mr. Shore, an able and keen observer, who held high
civil appointments in India, had watched this gradual
estrangement between the English and the native popula-
tions, foreseeing that the time must sooner or later come
when its results would be equally disastrous to both races.
In his admirable " Notes on Indian Affairs" (Vol. 11., No.
40), he has traced the change that had taken place in the
conduct of Englishmen tosarda the natives, from "the
era of Lord Cornwallis's great reforms of 1793, by which
natives were excluded from all employments, except such
as no English would accept." " From that day," he de•

Glares, " a separation seems to have taken place between
the two classes which has been widening ever since'
" Formerly, much intercourse," he remarks, " used to I.
kept up by means of entertainments reciprocally glven.
Fifty or sixty years ago the ussulnian had no scruple
M
about eating with an Englishman ; but they have changed
their ideas of late years, and now there are few in
ocuntry who would not think themselves degraded by
doing."

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-JULY
BOOKS.

How to Speak French, or French and France. Achille
Albetes, LL.B., Paris. Loop:ism
Traits and Stories of Anglo-Indian Life. Lieut.• Colonel
Addison. Smith sod Elder.
The Crisis in thr Paidatib,froin the 10th May wail the Fan
of Delhi. F. Cooper, Esq., C.S. Ditto.
A Long Vacation in Continental Picture Galleries. The
Rev. 'l'. W. Jas. Blake, M A. J. W. Parker
On the Authorised Version of the New Testament. Richer('
Chenevix Trench, I).D. Ditto,
Chiming Trifles. A Collection of Fugitive Compositions
in Verses on Subjects Grave and Gay. AnOzonian.

Kent and
Notes on the Revolt in the North-Weslern Provinces of J.
Charles Raikes. Longman.,
The Private Journal of the Marquess of Harding.
Edited by his Daughter, the Marchioness of
Two Vols. Saunders and Otley.
.4 Friend in Need. A Romance. Three Vols. Bentley.
Health and Disease, their Laws; with Principal Preserip.
lions for the People. Benjamin Ridge, M.D.
Chapman and
The Age ; a Colloquial Satire. Philip J. Bailey. Ditto.
Pebbles and Shells. Elizabeth W. French. Hardwieke.
The Ophthalmoscope: Internal Diseases affecting Me Epe.

Churchill.
The Primal Duties; o► Knowledge, Thought, and Action.
Angus Macpherson. Holliston and Stoneman.
Cases and ()Nervations on Spinal Deformity. Samuel Hare,
F.R.C.S., Churchill.

PERIODICALS.
3fel:ora. A Qnarterly Review of Social Science. .
ridge and Co.—London University Magazine. Hall
Virtue—The Quarterly Review. Murray.—The
Quarterly. Simpkin and Marshall.

PAMPHLET.

Artistic and Descriptive Notes on the moat Remarkable
Pictures in the British Institution. Bosworth and Harrison.
Texas ; Her Resources and her Public. Crozet:
the Construction and Principle of a Wave Screen. Weale.

usir.