Hindus have many virtues. They are obedient to parents, polite to equals, respectful to superiors, and reverential towards priests and preceptors. But for ages they have lived under the despotism of caste, custom, and religion, which is slowly melting away from European capitals of India, but is still rampant in Asiatic towns and villages. British education is elevating their intellects and enlarging their experiences, but cannot change their nature, nor hastily emancipate them from the usages of ages. The result is that to this day, both Hindus and Mohammedans lack those political ideas of constitutional government and public life, in which Englishmen have been trained since the days of Queen Elizabeth. [Sidenote: Child marriages.] Hindus are married in their childhood, and are often husbands and fathers when British boys are still at school, or learning trades and professions, or competing at boating or cricket. All this while, and for years after they have attained manhood, the bulk of Hindus are living under the roof of their parents. Husbands are ruled by fathers as though they were still children, and wives are the victims of their mothers-in-law. [Sidenote: Temper and repression.] Occasionally Hindus will exhibit a petulance and passion like that which drove the sepoys into mutiny; but as a general rule, they are kept within bounds by the despotism and discipline which reigns supreme in Hindu families, as well as by the severe self-control, which Asiatics esteem as one of the highest virtues. Moreover, during a long course of ages, they have become more or less enervated by that depressing heat, which often shakes the nerve and loosens the muscle of Europeans. Consequently, they have little relish for active life, and generally prefer sedentary duties which do not involve physical exertion. [Sidenote: Village communities.] Hindu village communities may have had some public life in the pre-British period. They governed themselves, and administered justice amongst themselves, but they in their turn were governed by caste, custom, and superstition. Sometimes they defended themselves against brigands or tigers, and they environed their domiciles with mud walls, wooden palisades, or hedges of prickly pear. If however there were any rumours of an enemy appearing in force, they all fled to the jungle until the danger was over. In Bengal, the villagers were helpless to resist dacoits, who occasionally committed the most horrible crimes; but since the organisation of police under European superintendence, such atrocities have disappeared from British India. [Sidenote: Despotic commonwealths.]