22 



produce, and for the advance received from the 

 money-lender on the hypothecation of the crop that 

 was never reaped. 



If such, then, is a true outline of the physical and 

 social condition of India of 18G2, it will not occasion 

 surprise if persons interested in its welfare and 

 with some knowledge of its circumstances, should 

 view, with some alarm, the daily increasing 1 tendency 

 of Englishmen to apply to India, in full detail, 

 systems of Political Economy, adapted to a people 

 in a high state of civilization, living- under a consti- 

 tution free as air a constitution which, if granted 

 to India but for a day, the first act of the legisla- 

 ture would be to vote every Englishman out of the 

 country. 



Now, although I say this deliberately, I would 

 not be understood to imply that the British Govern- 

 ment is obnoxious to the natives of this country, 

 I simply mean to assert, that the ideas, the charac- 

 teristics, the religions, &c. of the two nations are 

 Distinct ; that the masses here are too ignorant to 

 have any political opinions at all; and that in respect 

 of place and power, the upper ten thousand of India 

 are in no way dissimilar to other people a fact 

 which the rebellion of 1857-68, I think, pretty 

 clearly established. But be this as it may, it will 

 not follow that, because they are willing to under- 

 take the task of managing their own affairs, they 

 are competent to perform it efficiently. On the 

 contrary, to place before the public satisfactory argu- 



