A HINDOO CRITICISM OF JOHN DULL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2534, 6 October 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

A HINDOO CRITICISM OF JOHN DULL.

An' educated Hindoo, who is writing a series of his first impres.-ions of Englau 1 in the Indian Spectator, eulogists th i comfort of Euglish homes, laments the costliness of English fruits, and deilurethat John Bull has too many things to attend to to look after cooking. ''In fruits he excels everybody. In sweets he is not inferior to the Frenchman, and always inferior to the Indians." TUB COLD SOLESISITV OROUH KUKT.S. He continues :—John Bull loves 11 he exclusive. Every man for himself is his motto. Let me alone his ideal of society. You might travel for hours in the same compartment of a train without exchanging half a dozen words with your companions, I should not bo surprised if they wanted a heaven to themselves. Perhaps Swedenborg was right, liven their flirts, males and females, have a cold solemnity about them which makes your blood rim cold in your veins. There very amusements savour of business. Most of lliem havo a cynic. disgust of life, are always morose, and though burning with a desire to oblige you, quite capable of making you turn away in disgust at your coldness. Then there is so much stoutness and stolidity in their character. What they do they do with a will. If tliey eat they eat like giants. No halfhearteduess, no irresolution, no want of earnestness about them. If you see thern walking iu the streets of London you would think the world had come to an end. Yet they arr only going to the parks. MAMMON THE ENGLISH GOD. Everybody has a hobby. Thenatim is so full of eccentricities. They hold their own ; tell a lie arid stick to it, is their motto ; and then tliey love opposition. It is a crime to be poor. The goddess of wealth has more votaries than any church. To call ono a beggar is a great insult Short accounts make long friends, so goes the Eugli-di proverb, not like the Indian proverb, friends' accounts are settled iu heart. Nobody tolerates being under monoy obligations to another if he can help it. Your money is the test of your merit. Iu India poor men could live and even bo comparatively comfortable. In England it is not so. It is the law of the survival of the fittest, and the fittest is he who commands the most money. There is a feverish competition everywhere, and to be a man of indtpendeut means is everybody's ambition. This lies at the root of all that material progress which ono everywhere finds in Englad. But unlike our people whoso four per conts or massive buildings or curious jewels are often the only evidence of their wealth, tliey know how to make good tfo of their money. Every Englishman and Englishwoman works, if not to earn a livelihood, to do good to others. The climato is fatal to an idlo man. A Frenchman considers to show capacity is the end of speech in debate, an Englishman considers the end of speech in debate is to advance of busiuess. They require everybody to be true to his engagement, and I often missed many a one by being only a minute too late. For a punctual man, a man of good work. A good speaker is not always looked upon as the best man in a Ministry, a Ministry who does not work is soon elbowed out. Their Gladatones, Hariingtons. (Jhurchills, Parnells, Bradlaughs are working themselves to death iu their respective causes, otherwise they would be nowhere. Reserve power, nothing by fits and starts, is the rule. Nobody hates show and humbug more than they, and best dressed man is he whose dress excites no notice. THE IUCII, TIIK 13RAHMIXS OF THE EXGLISII. Englishmen talk of the baneful effects of ca-te iu India as if they had none in England, though it may not be in the same sense. A poor man is a Sudra, and a rich man, a lord, a peer, a Brahmin ; but the English Sudra can, like Viswamitra of Hindoo mythology, be a Brahmin, not by austerities like the royal sage, but by austerities in the accumulation of wealth. An Englishman never pardons his superiors for any familiarity towards him, nor does he pardon himself for any towards those below him. We in ludia havo yet to learn tho lesson of stubborness and resoluteuess, and one might, willingly sacrifice half the rhetoric of the country for a tenth of that spirit of self-help which is so strongly noticeablo in England. Thero they (lo all they attempt. Perhaps this system of mutual dependence is the great bane of our society "Joint family" is not their motto; as soon as a man marries he hires separate lodgings and keeps a separaso house. The Hindoo sutlers, theEnlishmun struggles.