very best, or at least equal to the
very best, of the community, must always have exercised a large influence
in discouraging the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, it is impossible
to refrain from coming to the conclusion that this single fact is more
than sufficient to counterbalance all the evils that have ever been said
to arise from caste.

On two very important points, then--the connection of the sexes and the
use of alcohol--it is evident that caste laws have produced some very
favourable and valuable results; but I do not think we can accurately
gauge their value unless we compare the state of morality existing in
Manjarabad with the state of morality existing in one of our home
counties; and the comparison I have to make, if not very soothing, is, I
am sure, very interesting. Take any one of our counties in Great Britain,
for instance, and compare it with Manjarabad as regards the points I have
particularly referred to, and it will be found that Manjarabad has an
immense superiority. The crimes and misery arising from drinking are
hardly to be found at all in Manjarabad, while the morality of the sexes,
I should think, could hardly be surpassed. Now, there is nothing very
surprising, considering that the people in this country are so heavily
weighted, that this should be the case; on the contrary, it is the natural
result of the circumstances of their worldly situation. But, supposing
that the worldly situation as to the means of support and the
opportunities of marrying were equal, it seems to me perfectly plain that
the people who have a large proportion of the better classes total
abstainers, and who have their society so controlled that the rich cannot
gratify their passions at the expense of the poor, must be in the
possession of a superior morality.

Before closing this branch of the subject, I may allude briefly to what
has been so often attacked by the opponents of caste: I mean the
prohibition of the marriage of widows. This rule exists in Manjarabad, but
I am not aware that any great moral evil arises from it, as a widow can
always contract to live with a man, the difference being that the
ceremonies performed are of an inferior kind. This is not allowed to be a
marriage, but, in fact, it is a marriage, though of a kind held in rather
low estimation. On customs like these, which in a great measure neutralize
the evils arising from the restrictions on re-marriage, it seems to me
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