This growing
vice he severely reprimanded, as being derogatory to the character of
the gentleman, as a degrading thing, as entitling those who practised it
to "group with the infamous, with those who are cheats, and whose
society is contamination." He strongly urged them to stick to their
duties, to reprobate extravagance and expense of all sorts, and to
practise rigid economy; for "to drink unpaid-for champagne and
unpaid-for beer, and to ride unpaid-for horses, is to be a cheat and not
a gentleman."
The extravagance of these young "gentlemen" in India is, in too many
respects, but a counterpart of the extravagance of our young "gentlemen"
at home. The revelations of extravagances at Oxford and Cambridge point
to the school in which they have learnt their manners. Many worthy
parents have been ruined by the sons whom they had sent thither to be
made scholars of; but who have learnt only to be "gentlemen" in the
popular acceptation of the word. To be a "gentleman" nowadays, is to be
a gambler, a horse-racer, a card-player, a dancer, a hunter, a
_roue_,--or all combined. The "gentleman" lives fast, spends fast,
drinks fast, dies fast. The old style of gentleman has degenerated into
a "gent" and a "fast" man. "Gentleman" has become disreputable; and when
it is now employed, it oftener signifies an idle spendthrift, than an
accomplished, virtuous, laborious man.
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