Notwithstanding these saturnalia, however, which are disgraceful alike to governors and governed, the general opinion of those who are acquainted with India is that, on the whole, the people are temperate. The author has been assured by one friend who has visited most of the large cities, and who resided three years at Bombay, that during the whole of that period he never saw a native intoxicated in the streets; that the higher classes amongst the Hindoos and Parsees (to whom we shall refer hereafter), although they offer wine to their European guests during their visits, refrain from drinking it themselves, and that any drunkenness which may exist in the most civilised portions of the country is confined entirely to Englishmen and the lowest castes of the native population. It is impossible to pass away from this phase of the subject without uttering a word of caution as regards the future social condition of our Indian Empire. We hear a great deal about the bugbear of an invasion of India by the Russians, and if it were known that a statesman of any eminence was about to address our House of Commons on that question, its benches would be filled with eager listeners; but let any legislator or philanthropist, however great his reputation, take up the subject of the opium traffic, a detestable trade, which is not only a chronic curse to a great neighbouring empire, but which may at any time become a scourge to our own fellow-subjects, and we may rest assured that his audience would be of the most limited. And so, too, as regards all matters which concern the happiness and welfare of the people of India. But when we look at the facility which exists there for the distillation of ardent spirits from rice, the attention of our Legislature should be earnestly directed to the evil that might result from their more general use, in case the means of purchasing them were facilitated by greater prosperity. It should be one of the chief cares of the Home and Colonial Governments to provide for the education and training of the poorer natives, so that they may learn to make a wise use of their increasing resources. Those who have read accounts of military life in India fifty or a hundred years back are aware that there has been a marked diminution in drunkenness amongst the English of late years, and it is to be hoped that the same causes which have led to a decided improvement in that respect amongst our middle class at home will likewise operate in India, and that our countrymen there may soon present that example of sobriety and dignity which should always characterise the dominant race.[78] CHAPTER IV. THE ZEND-AVESTA AND THE FOLLOWERS OF ZOROASTER—THE MODERN PERSIANS—MOHAMMEDAN LAW CONCERNING DRINK AND DRINKING PRACTICES—THE PARSEES OF INDIA.