C. T. Buckland

“ It is a very pretty and interesting sight when the room is crowded, about 10 o’clock, and the Viceroy with his wife and their private friends, and staff, make their appearance in procession and take their places for the opening quadrille. A sacred space is corded off for the Viceroy’s quadrille, the ends of the cords being held or guarded by some of the handsome young privates of the Viceroy’s native body-guard, in their gorgeous scarlet uniforms and plumed head-dresses. These body-guard men are quite a study, as they stand gazing imperturbably on the dazzling scene. ”

“ Perhaps the time may come when the women of India may assert themselves more publicly, and insist on the enjoyment of those privileges which their European sisters have as their birthright; but until that time comes, how can any Englishman venture to write about the real people of India? A civilian has no more true knowledge of the female portion of the native population than a native has of the members of the English peerage. ”

“ It is very natural to imagine that a member of the Civil Service has the most favourable opportunities of making himself acquainted with the natives. He certainly may have some advantages over non-official people, but, on the other hand, he is at many great disadvantages compared with non-official people. The official status puts him out of focus, if we may use the expression; he sees the natives under a false light, whilst they present themselves to his view with a fictitious colouring. Most of our readers have heard of Cicero and his writings and speeches. ”

“ NATIVE LIFE IN INDIA. There are some people who seem to think that in writing about social life in India, the first place should be given to a consideration of the natives of the land. But we say it with sorrow, though without shame, that we can only add our testimony to that of many of the best friends of India, that the more an Englishman sees of India, the less competent he feels to write about the natives of the country. They are a good and loveable people, towards whom our hearts go forth only too readily, but we never seem to come to a true and thorough knowledge of them. ”

“ If your fair and charming companion at a dinner-party persists in her conversation in filling all Indian houses with snakes and scorpions, she will be much more gratified to hear a few anecdotes which accord with her own assertions, than she would be to learn that it is possible to live for years in some parts of India without seeing either a snake or a scorpion. ”

“ At a given signal the experienced police-officer fired the first shot, and his companions each fired off both barrels. The tiger rose unharmed and looked at them; but fortunately his wrath was directed to the noisy native villagers on the high bank and he rushed off towards them, scattering them like a flock of sheep. The young officials and their police-mentor returned to their homes sadder and wiser men, not likely to go out again on foot in quest of a tiger.
The life of an assistant civilian at a sub-division is a life of toil and drudgery. ”

“ In India, as long as a woman has any youth and beauty she is kept in strict seclusion from the public gaze. In large towns in certain quarters a few painted Jezebels may be seen looking down from their upper stories, but otherwise an European visitor might believe that youth and beauty did not exist in the land. And not only does the eye never behold the best portion of the female sex, but a rigid etiquette must be observed in conversation with a native gentleman in even alluding to the female members of his household. ”

“ A huge bonfire is then piled up in the centre of the space before the camp, and when the torch is applied it blazes up fiercely, whilst all the guests sit round on chairs and couches and listen to the music of the band. Sometimes a few songs and glees are sung. It is a weird but charming scene as we look round on all the quaint figures wrapped up in shawls and cloaks and great-coats and extemporised head-dresses; for it is just cold enough to make a few warm garments acceptable, though there is no great risk of catching cold in the calm and soft night air. ”

“ Any member of a camp who is going out to dinner is expected to give early notice to his hostess, so that she may be able to ask a friend from some other camp in his place. By this arrangement an agreeable exchange of hospitality is kept up, and the monotony of always having the same set of faces avoided. Many of the ladies appear at dinner ready dressed for the ball afterwards, but some of the most wary ones reserve a few final touches of dress for after dinner. It is astonishing what a magic effect is sometimes produced by those few final touches. ”

“ Not unfrequently one man becomes his master’s special favourite and adviser. The sahib learns to see everything through his favourite’s spectacles, and to be guided, however unconsciously, by his suggestions and promptings. The result is inevitable. Those who have failed to gain favour combine and intrigue against the favourite—but their machinations fail. There is however, a Nemesis in store. The civilian is transferred, and another officer takes his place. The old favourite makes a struggle to maintain his position and authority with the new man, but probably in vain. ”

“ The government of a province and its millions of inhabitants is avowedly the ultimate aim and object of each civilian’s official life; but whilst he is serving his apprenticeship for the higher offices of Government, he must be prepared to adapt his mind to the most humble and unintellectual duties. He must learn to obey, so that he may understand how to rule. ”

“ What wonder, then, if he unconsciously begins to think with thoughts that are not as those of ordinary mortal men. And thus it comes to pass that the young members of the Civil Service, nurtured on sweet words and addressed continually by flattering and exaggerated titles, surrounded from day to day by suppliant and subservient attendants, and frequently cut off from any direct communication with English friends, do acquire a manner of thought and speech which may strike the non-official observer as savouring of the superhuman or Celestial type. ”

“ Therefore, the dishes are both numerous and serious; and as the sun is over the yard-arm, in nautical phrase, the men have fully earned their right to a draught of cool beer, or of claret or hock with such combinations of soda and iced materials as the heart desires. When a man has been in the saddle for several hours with a fine blazing sun overhead, and the temperature almost beyond the thermometer’s power of measurement, it is not astonishing that a good pull at a tankard of beer is something like a fabulous draught of nectar. ”

“ The duty of a judge is not so difficult as some people suppose. It is a well-known truism that in almost all law-suits the difficulty is to ascertain the real facts of the case. If the facts are found, the application of the law to those facts is a comparatively simple process. In the court of a district judge there are pleaders of good ability and considerable legal acquirements, who are not likely to allow him to be misled as to the law, however much they may strive to twist the facts of a case in favour of their client. ”

“ It is to him that the native community especially look as the fountain of honour, and as the dispenser of patronage in his province. Nor are the European portion of the public by any means backward in seeking His Honour’s favour and patronage on behalf of themselves and their young friends and relations who are sent out to India to find a livelihood. It is a fact that there is hardly a member of Her Majesty’s Government or of Her Majesty’s Opposition who has not an application lying before the Lieutenant-Governor for an appointment to be given to some connection or acquaintance. ”

“ A flash of lightning dazzles your eyes, and the sharp crack like a pistol-shot tells you how near to you it passed, followed by an awful crash of thunder, which echoes and reechoes from every neighbouring mountain and valley. In such a scene as this, you may perceive, if a lucid interval permits it, the Member of Council riding home from a meeting at the Viceroy’s residence, looking like a bathing-machine man, and caparisoned from head to foot in drenched waterproof garments. Riding, however, is an exercise not always congenial to the age of a Member of Council ”

“ John Marshman, the historian of India, used to say that it was impossible to do any good in a country like Bengal, or for a people like the Bengalis, because, according to their national proverb, it was “impossible to carve rotten wood.” But the introduction of railways has almost falsified the national proverb. Wherever the iron road pervades the country, it gives a new basis of strength and vitality on which a new growth of life can arise. ”

“ The judge, therefore, can easily master the leading facts of a case as set forth in the decision of the lower court, before he begins to hear the arguments of the counsel who appear to impugn or to support that decision. A case may be more or less complicated, but for a man of ordinary capacity and common sense it is a pleasant intellectual entertainment to listen to the arguments of the contending pleaders. ”

“ For, as was well said by a learned judge, men and women are almost on an equality as regards the upper part of their dress, and can use their hands and heads with nearly equal effect. But when a lawn-tennis ball makes a bound into the skirts of a lady’s dress she has not the same facility of escaping from it as her male adversary. Therefore, as the shuttlecock of Badminton was always flying high, and from head to head, so to speak, Badminton for a long time in India held its own against the introduction of lawn-tennis ”

“ The doors of every fashionable house are open to him if he chooses to leave his card. If he is a good musician he will be all the more welcome. If he can dance well he will have no difficulty in finding partners. At his club he becomes a sort of authority, and has to practice the affectation of being mysterious about trifles, so as to keep himself in training to baffle inconvenient questions on official matters of importance. Whatever social pleasures and amenities life in the capital of Bengal affords, these are all at the disposal of the fortunate civilian under-secretary. ”

“ The position of a judge of the High Court is certainly a very enviable one. It may be said to combine almost the highest amount of official dignity with no inconsiderable degree of otium. In the usual routine of the court work two judges sit together, and constitute what is called a bench. When two judges are sitting together it follows as a matter of course that one of them takes the leading part in the conduct of the case which is before them. Where two men ride on one horse, one must ride behind the other. ”

“ It is true that a portly native gentleman, whilst uttering the usual formal compliments of introduction, does not always remember to suppress those ebullitions which are considered amongst his own people to be indicative of his having enjoyed his breakfast; it is true that the language of polite flattery is sometimes rather over-strained; but when the first effervescence of such frothy nothings has subsided, the time will come when the visitor will work down to his natural powers of conversation, according to the capacity which he possesses. ”

“ But in an open-air garden-party they can wander about without any fear of meeting anything that may be offensive to their caste prejudices. It is much to be regretted that, however well-acquainted he may think himself to be with native habits and feelings, it is almost impossible for an English gentleman to be quite sure that there may not be something in his entertainment for the gratification of native gentlemen which, thanks probably to his own servants, may not be misinterpreted or misunderstood by some of them. ”

“ The Government sometimes removes a man who does not seem strong enough for his share in the work, and transfers him to a position where the strain on his power is less, and replaces him by a stronger man. To most men the first direct object of their ambition is to obtain charge of a district. After about ten years of subordinate service, the civilian finds himself appointed as collector and magistrate to the charge of a district, and he thus becomes the direct representative of the executive government of the country. ”

“ The race of Nabobs has come to an end. The pagoda-tree of fabulous memory no longer bears its golden fruit. An enormous change has come over the habits and manners of those Englishmen who now practically colonise India. For though colonisation is usually spoken of in a different sense, the British inhabitants of India are virtually a colony. The individual colonists may change, but as fast as one man goes another steps into his place ”

“ He will have to count and deliver out postage-stamps with his own hands, and woe betide him if his treasury accounts and cash balances do not agree to the uttermost farthing. The capacity of a civilian’s mental power should be similar to that of the elephant’s trunk, which can pick up a pin and pull down a mighty forest tree. There is nothing too great, and hardly anything too small, to which he may not in the course of his career be expected to apply himself. ”

“ A gentleman commoner at an English university with £400 a year and confiding tradesmen to give him credit, is not usually found a good subject for discipline. What, then, could be expected from the young men in Calcutta, with a salary of £400 a year, and open access to the purses of every wealthy money-lender in the country? Nor was this all. The Government, aware of the danger of the native money-lender’s fatal influence, endeavoured to anticipate and avert it. Each young civilian, whilst in college in Calcutta, was authorised to borrow a sum of £400 from Government. ”

“ A civilian in high authority once remonstrated with his servant, who professed to complain of too much work, and asked him why, if he was dissatisfied, he did not take service with some rich Calcutta merchant whose whole day was spent at his office. “Sir,” replied the man, “they have no visitors.” Whenever a native gentleman comes to call at the house of a high official, the native servants always expect a fee. The visitor pays it, for the amount is not large, and he does not know what might happen if he did not pay. ”

“ The race-stand commands a good view of the races; but one race is very much like another, except that at an Indian race-course you probably know most of the owners of the horses, or some of the gentleman-riders, so that a stronger personal feeling exists; and the young ladies will insist on betting for gloves and backing the worst horse in the race, merely because it is to be ridden by that good-looking young officer to whom they are engaged for at least three dances at the coming ball. The races usually last till about 10 o’clock, when we all go back to our camps and make ready for breakfast. ”