originate from any feeling of regard for the children, for they were
allowed to climb, and push, and run over the sky-lights, and over the
engine, and I every moment expected that some of them would be provided
for either by the cog-wheels or the river Rhine.
It was evident at once, not only from the above accessories, but from
the Chinese trunks which contained their luggage, that they were an
Indian importation, and their behaviour subsequently proved it, beyond
all doubt, even if they had not made it known--not by talking to us, but
by talking at us, for they evidently did not consider that we were
sufficiently respectable to be admitted into their society, even in the
short intercourse of fellow-travellers.
I cannot here help making an observation relative to most of the people
who come from India. They are always dissatisfied, and would gladly
return. The reason is very obvious; they at once lose their rank and
consequence, and sink down to the level which they are entitled to in
English society. In India the rank of the servants of the Company takes
precedence; but whatever their rank or emolument may be in India, they
are still but servants of a company of merchants, and such rank is not,
of course, allowed in England. Accustomed to unlimited sway and control
over a host of fawning slaves, and to that attention as females--which,
where females are not very plentiful, is most sedulously paid--
accustomed to patronise the newcomers, who, of course, feel grateful for
such well-timed civility and hospitality--in short, accustomed to rank,
splendour, wealth, and power--it is not surprising that, upon their
return to England, when they find themselves shorn of all these, and
that their station in society is far more removed from the apex, they
become sullen and dissatisfied. Of course, there are many who have been
resident in India, where family and connections insure them every
advantage upon their return to their native country; but it must be
recollected that the greater proportion of those who return consists of
those who were of low origin, and who have obtained their appointments
in reward for the exertions of their parents in behalf of their patrons
in parliamentary returns, etcetera, and of young females who have (with
their face as their fortune) been shipped off to India upon a
matrimonial speculation. Now, however high in rank they may have, in
the course of many years' service, arrived to in India, when they return
they are nobodies; and unless they bring with them such wealth as to
warrant their being designated as nabobs, their chance of admittance
into the best society is very small indeed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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