54 



23. Under ordinary circumstances we expect the 

 Natives of India people of a country to be alive to their 



not enterprising . . 



enough to be own interests, and to develop their own 



alive to their own 



resources, the Government if necessary 

 taking the part of Instructor. This acknowledged 

 principle, sound as it no doubt is, cannot, however, 

 be extended to India, for although telegraphs and 

 steam communication have done much towards 

 enlightening the people of the Eastern world, and 

 raising them a stage higher in the scale of civiliza- 

 tion, it is a mistake to suppose that the natives of 

 India are sufficiently advanced to be altogether out of 

 leading-strings, or that the development of agricul- 

 tural industries can be entirely entrusted to them. 

 There is, perhaps, no more improvident and less enter- 

 prising race in the world. They are content with the 

 small returns afforded by the means of livelihood 

 handed down by their ancestors, and this is one of the 

 reasons why they are less able to face a failure of 

 crops than the European labourer. In India, a bad 

 harvest simply implies absolute starvation ; whereas 

 in England a similar adversity which is of no 

 uncommon occurrence merely demands the abandon- 

 ment of luxuries, not of the necessaries of life. For 

 this unsatisfactory state of affairs there are two chief 

 reasons. In J the first place, the natives of India 

 live literally'J from hand to mouth, and leave no 

 margin for unforeseen vicissitudes common to all 

 countries ; and, secondly, they do not turn to the 

 greatest advantage the whole of the land at their 

 disposal. The rapid strides which education is 



