All the
subjects of the British Crown, even in India, are _politically free_,
but individually the poorer Hindus, (especially those who reside at a
distance from large towns,) are unconscious of their rights, and even
the wealthier classes have rarely indeed that proud and noble feeling of
personal independence which characterizes people of all classes and
conditions in England. The feeling with which even a Hindu of wealth and
rank approaches a man in power is very different indeed from that of the
poorest Englishman under similar circumstances. But national education
will soon communicate to the natives of India a larger measure of true
self-respect. It will not be long, I hope, before the Hindus will
understand our favorite maxim of English law, that "Every man's house is
his castle,"--a maxim so finely amplified by Lord Chatham: "_The poorest
man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It
may be frail--its roof may shake--the wind may blow through it--the
storm may enter--but the king of England cannot enter!--all his force
dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement_."
[005] _Literary Recreations_.
[006] I have in some moods preferred the paintings of our own
Gainsborough even to those of Claude--and for this single reason, that
the former gives a peculiar and more touching interest to his landscapes
by the introduction of sweet groups of children.
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