European child-life in Bengal / by J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Joseph, Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: European child-life in Bengal / by J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    influence on civilization and on the development of the in- tellectual no less than the physical resources of the more remote as well as of the more central parts of the empire, so is an ever-increasing tide of Europeans, by whose aid these ends are attained, attracted thereby; for although native agency and labour are, and always must he, mainly relied on, it is found that European supervision and skill are indis- pensable, and that their supply increases in proportion to the demand. Matters have changed in respect of the condition of the Anglo-Saxon in India during the last quarter or half a century; or to date from an earlier period, one might say since the days when Europeans not in the covenanted service of the Honourable East India Company were looked upon and styled interlopers and adventurers, and were permitted to remain in the country only on sufferance, being at any time liable to expulsion. The position of the European resident in India of those days was very different from that of his countryman now. In some respects, perhaps, he had greater, though in many he had certainly less, advantages than his successors. If he had the opportunity of gaining greater wealth, more power, prestige, and of leading a more luxurious life, his voyage to India was seldom accomplished by the long and tedious sea route round the Cape in less, often in more, than from four to six months. If on his arrival in the country he found himself placed, even in youth, in an office of considerable respon- sibility, dignity, or much emolument; and if his life were one of Oriental luxury (a condition, by the way, which is grievously over-rated), yet he was cut off from his family and friends, and his communications with them were so few and at such long intervals that he gradually became isolated from home and its influences as much in mind as in person; and j.t is no exaggeration to say that this expatria-