Yet, in such a case, the people who are drowning are, in most cases, of the very same caste as those who are looking on with apathy, without exerting themselves to render any assistance; probably their acquaintances, with whom they are in daily communication. On the other hand, Hindus, who are charitably inclined, will attend others of different caste in sickness, or even wait upon a Moosulman. Many English have found their native servants, of all sects, the most careful nurses in sickness that could be procured; had it been contrary to their caste, the circumstance of their being servants would not have produced such an effect.
Caste is said to form a bar to conversion, because a man thereby becomes an outcast from all his former friends and relations: but it is not so much attributable to caste, as to the general dislike and prejudice which is felt by every nation and class of people against one of their number who renounces the religion of his fathers, which they still profess, and becomes a convert to another, as I endeavoured to illustrate in the preceding Number. But it is only to a certain extent that the convert becomes an outcast; his relations will not eat with him, but if he be well received among his new sect, and be as well off in the world as before, they will not hesitate to associate with him, as some facts, which will presently be mentioned, sufficiently demonstrate. By the Hindu law, and, in practice at least, by the Muhammedan law, a man who becomes a convert to any other religion, forfeits his share of the family property. It would be expedient to alter the law on this head, so as to allow free-will upon the point of religion and conversion.
Caste is fully as much a civil as a religious distinction, and we have some arbitrary rules in English society which approximate very nearly to that institution among the natives of India. It is constantly urged against these, that respectability of character weighs nothing when put in competition with caste, and that a man would forfeit his caste who should be found eating with one of a lower class, although the latter may be an excellent and virtuous man. Have we nothing similar to this? If a gentleman
