, 1881-01-01

men familiar with the history of subiuga-
ted OF enslaved communities know that this
quality, be it virtue or vice, always devel-
ops itself among them, till the ruler, be he
king or master, is opposed by a corpora
tion with which he is powerless to deal.
The members of the corporation know
that their safety depends upon their secret
confidence in each other, and the know
ledge, handed down for generations, devel-
ops q feeling that treachery to the commu-
nifty il the one objectionable Sin, the most
degrading of conceivable offences, one for
which . man is, at best, to be left alone,
till.he dies or commits suicide of the shame.
In an ancient Roman household OF a hun-
dfsd slaves, there would probably be ten
races, five languages, and at least two
degrees OF civilization. the Greek slaves
differing from he rest as gentlemen differ
from the lowest roughs. The house was
full OF %jealoasies, quarrels. hatreds, and
p~airings-off, all tending to disunion ; yet,
40 against the owner, 80 complete grew
this fidelity, that the Romans despaired,
even after extremities of torture, of making
slaves betray one another, and passed the
terrible but logical law that if the master
were killed, every slave 10 the house at the
time must be put to death. 1t was hope.
less to try and ascertain who had killed
him. William the Conqueror issued a
decras similar in principle against all Sax
ons who might have known of a Norman's
murder; and In our own time, Nlhillst
Russian students have been arrested on
much the same idea. The slaves of the
Southern States, absolutely as they were
10 their masters power, rarely or never
betrayed each other and the masters
knew perfectly that if o rising occurred
it would be at some unexpected moment.
The caste laws Of India are carried out
by reliance OF the development of this
fidelity. The caste man does not dread
an oppressor, but society generally, against
which he has slowly learned to protect him
self by this form of combination, and
though the weakest and most timid OF
mortaIs, nothing will induce him to incur
the social ban. We are not speaking of
the religious element in caste, which exists,
though not in the strength Europeans
imagine, Hindoos being nearly as ready to
do wrong for profit or pleasure as Chris
tians are, but of the social element. The
social laws of caste are defended with the
same pertinacity as the religious, till q
mar as sensitive and gentle as a woman
will die by fire, or under the lash, or of
starvation, sooner than dissolve the bond Of
his community by breaking purely secular
rules, such as accepting less woges than
their minimum tariff allows. or giving up
q deposit or q letter entrusted to him under
caste sanctions. He is not afraid of hell,
that is all nonsense, except when his per
sonal purity, i.e., bis obedience to certain
rules OF diet, is concerned he declines to
destroy d community, the existence or
conference of which depends on his fidelity.
There is, or was, a caste of carriers in
Dude which might be trusted with any
thing. The welfare of that community
as against the world, depended on the uni
versal belief In that trustw Orthiness,
which brought them their business. No
temptation, and no threat, and no torture
had the smallest effect in making any one
. of them break the rule of honesty, though
the very same men, outside the business,
would lie, and steal, and betray like other
!. uncultivated folk. The Irish peasant or
labourer, in a bad district, has fallen into
that caste way. and will no more break the
unwritten bond than an old Roman slave
would, or a modern Hindoo. 1t used to be
impossible even in England to get evidence
about the ~stricter Trade Unions, and we
have been told, but do not for ourselves