Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎540r] (204/238)

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Reviews and Notices.
civilian, diplomatist, and merchant all in one ; and the age of officials had
come in. This new race of Anglo-Indians had spent the better part of
their lives in the East; they were out of touch with English politics; their
old acquaintances were scattered, their relatives lukewarm, and their
interests were mainly centred in each other. And so they founded the
Royal Asiatic Society, and out of the Asiatic Society, where men met to
read the papers and discuss things new as well as old, the Oriental took
shape. The Asiatic has since then given birth to various learned associa
tions, and its social gatherings are still as much appreciated as its lectures,
but we do not think it has given rise to another club. Of course, the
Oriental did not profess to be merely a sodality of good fellows, meeting
because they loved to meet and enjoy their leisure after their own fashion.
It took itself quite seriously like many other clubs; it was to instruct
the world on the condition of the East. And, as in the case of most
other clubs, this part of its programme has fallen into the background;
like the Sultan’s programmes, it is an excellent make-belief, and a man
may enjoy as sound a siesta in its unfrequented library on a warm summer
afternoon as in most other club libraries, or even in the British Museum
Reading Room. I he Oriental started with a very catholic constitution ;
it admitted all who could show any connection with the East, although
they had never been there. This led in 1847 to the creation of a second
club for officials only—the East India United Service Club, in St. James’s
Square. This secession was also, perhaps, partly due to the situation of the
Oriental, far away from ordinary “ Clubland ” in Hanover Square. Our
author explains that in the early days of Queen Victoria Anglo-Indian
magnates chiefly affected the large and solemn houses in Harley Street
and Wimpole Street. The loss of a considerable part (but by no means
the whole) of the official element was compensated by amalgamation with
the Albert, a club with a literary reputation which had numbered Lord
Byron among its members, and so many Bishops that a witty Lord
remarked he could not enter the place without being reminded of his
Catechism. Since the amalgamation with the Albert, there has been no
further change in the constitution of the club, although, like all Anglo-
Indian haunts, it has lost something of its distinctive character. Our
author gives us some lively glimpses of the generation which frequented the
club in the forties and early fifties : the ancient warriors with jingling spurs
whose horses were led up and down before the hall door; the sallow-faced,
irascible gentlemen who lived on hot curries and tugged at their
mustachios ; the member who would dine on many courses at 11 p.m.; and
the members whose hair-dye stained the club brushes. Among these
striking figures of the past the author recognises General Charles Carmichael
as a prototype of Colonel Newcome. The General was a man of action.
One day when the club committee happened to be sitting, a chop was served
not to the General’s liking, and the General promptly ordered it to be laid
with his compliments, before the committee. The newspaper wits occa
sionally made fun of these ancient warriors after the not over-refined
fashion of the day, and the youthful students of the Royal Academy of
Music used to treat them to a fanfaronade of all the wind instruments
THIRD SERIES. VOL. XIII.
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