312 BRITISH SOCIAL SYSTEM. 



of inspiring honourable feelings, and securing against 

 temptations°to mean or mercenary conduct. 



There is another grade of Indian society who have ex- 

 cited a painful and'increasing interest ; the individuals, 

 namely, who have sprung from European fathers by na t.ve 

 mothers. Mr. Ricketts supposes the number in Bengal to 

 be '^0 000, of whom 2000 are educated, and about 1000 

 employed as clerks and copyists. This class have been 

 much at a loss for an appropriate appellation. The ongina 

 one of Half-caste, derived from H.ndoo ideas is unjust and 

 insulting, while that of Eurasians was affected and obscure. 

 Sir John Malcolm uses Anglo-Indians ; the Friend of India 

 proposed Indo-Bntons ; but East Indians, though not very 

 strictly appropriate, is that which they themselves have pre- 

 ferred In several memorials lately addressed to the British 

 parliament, they paint in strong colours the hardships oi 

 Their situation,-enjoying the pr.v, eges neither of _ Euro- 

 peans nor Indians ; having the benefit neither of British nor 

 Hindoo law ; and excluded from offices of trust, to which 

 even natives are admitted. Although these complaints , seem 

 to be somewhat exaggerated, and though they have the ad- 

 vantage over Englishmen, in being able, in right of their 

 mothers, to hold lands, it yet appears that in respec to 

 employments, they labour under considerable hardship. 

 This jealous exclusion is perhaps prompted by the fear lest, 

 considering themselves only as natives of India, they may 

 be disposed to erect an independent power in that country ; 

 though so severe a proscription is more likely than any thing 

 else to realize that very apprehension. Lord ^^ alent.a con- 

 siders the increase of this class as affording ground for 

 serious alarm. The writer on the « Free Trade and Co b- 

 nization of India" contends, on the contrary, that it is rapidly 

 diminishing. He observes, that European ladies are now 

 much more numerous in India, and are naturally viewed 

 with preference by their own countrymen —while bast 

 Indian -iris are ambitious of forming connexions with gen- 

 tlemen from Britain,-in which, if possessed cf any attrac- 

 tion, they find little difficulty, and the offspring ranks as 

 English. At present two journals in Calcutta are conducted 

 by men of that lineage, who naturally advocate the interest* 

 of their class. 



