Nor are the great forests and mountain ranges of Central India without much beauty; while the magnificent harbour of Bombay and other sea views on the coast show that India is not wanting in many of the charms of marine landscape.
But it is time that I should speak of the people of the country. Those who have never been in India often form their ideas, (very naturally), from the few natives of India they have met in this country; but these are a small and very peculiar class, and are by no means fair specimens, not merely of the whole population, but even of their own province.
Let me, however, at once give you a few figures, which will show how unsafe it is to generalize from a few instances. India is inhabited by about 200 millions of people, speaking at least eleven totally distinct languages, and innumerable dialects, and differing amongst each other in features, character, and social customs, quite as much as the Russian or Spaniard does from the Englishman.
As, therefore, I have told you not to form a judgment of the whole from a few isolated and exceptional instances, I shall avoid falling into the same error, and only talk about the races with which I am personally acquainted.
The Bengalees, _i.e._ the inhabitants of Bengal proper, have been those who have benefited most intellectually by their contact with the English. They are quick-witted and clever; many are excellent English scholars, and make admirable clerks and accountants. Many have risen to high positions in the public service: one sits on the Bench as a Judge of the High Court; several have come to England and fairly won their place in the Indian Civil Service, in competition with Englishmen. But no Bengalee serves in the army, or enters into any pursuit or amusement from choice which requires bodily activity and strength: his physical organization is of the feeblest; for centuries he has been ruled by the stronger races from the North, and it is to be feared that his moral organization but too often follows the law of the physical.
As we go north, after leaving Bengal, we find ourselves amongst a more manly race—the stalwart Jat, the manly Rajpoot, the warlike Sikh, and the fierce and treacherous Puthan. These are the men with whom we wrestled for the empire of the East, and who now recruit our best native regiments,—who helped to plant the British flag on the towers of Pekin and the heights of Magdala.