When Sir Charles Napier left India, he issued an order to the Army, in which he reproved the officers for contracting debts without the prospect of paying them.  The Commander-in-Chief found that he was subject to constant complaints against officers for non-payment of debts; and in some cases he found that the ruin of deserving and industrious tradesmen had been consequent on that cause.  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.

Young men are growing quite shameless about being in debt; and the immorality extends throughout society.  Tastes are becoming more extravagant and luxurious, without the corresponding increase of means to enable them to be gratified.  But they are gratified, nevertheless; and debts are incurred, which afterwards weigh like a millstone round the neck.  Extravagant habits, once formed and fostered, are very difficult to give up.  The existing recklessness of running into debt without the prospect, often without even the intention, of paying the debt, saps the public morals, and spreads misery throughout the middle and upper classes of society.  The tone of morality has sunk, and it will be long before it is fairly recovered again.

In the mean time, those who can, ought to set their faces against all expenditure where there are not sufficient means to justify it.  The safest plan is, to run up no bills, and never to get into debt; and the next is, if one does get into debt, to get out of it again as quickly as possible.  A man in debt is not his own master:  he is at the mercy of the tradesmen he employs.  He is the butt of lawyers, the byword of creditors, the scandal of neighbours; he is a slave in his own house; his moral character becomes degraded and defiled; and even his own household and family regard him with pity akin to contempt.