e men were hostile to
each other, did the women seem united: the more there were of these fair
creatures, the pleasanter did they make the party by their smiles and
good-humour: with the men, the more there were collected together, the
more wrangling always ensued. In qualities of the mind and heart, as
well as in the social virtues, the women far surpass the men--they are
more susceptible of friendship, more hospitable to strangers, less
reserved, and, I must say, generally better informed. Wherever I have
been conversing with gentlemen in society, if a difficulty occurred on
any topic, the men would invariably turn to their wives or sisters, and
ask for an explanation, thus tacitly admitting the superior attainments
of the ladies: and I have always found that I obtained from the latter a
more satisfactory answer to any of my enquiries on national customs and
institutions. Nor must it be supposed that this superiority was only
apparent, and arose from the desire the men might have to display the
accomplishments of their ladies by referring so constantly to them: it
is the real state of the case, as far as I can judge from the manners of
the people."

We cannot better close our extracts from the Khan's remarks on English
manners and society, than with this spontaneous tribute to the merits
and attractions of our countrywomen, the value of which is enhanced by
its coming, as it does, from an acute observer of a social system in
which every thing was wholly at variance with his preconceived habits
and ideas, and from one, moreover, totally unacquainted with that
routine of compliment, which serves gentlemen in the regions of
Franguestan, to use the words of Die Vernon, "like the toys and beads
which navigators carry with them to propitiate the inhabitants of
newly-discovered lands." But the impression produced on the Khan by the
contemplation of the institutions and resources of England has yet to be
viewed in another light--in its relations to the government of India
under Feringhi rule, and the comparative benefits conferred on the
people at large, by the sway respectively of the English, and of their
old Mohammedan rulers. The Khan's opinions on these subjects will
doubtless be read with surprise by that numerous and respectable class
of the community, who hold as an article of faith, (to use the words of
our author,) that in Mohammedan countries "every prince is a tyrant;
every court of justice full of corruption; and