51 



he had to accomplish was light in comparison to 

 what is left for a Minister of Commerce. Measuring 

 the extent of the improvement in the condition of 

 the people of India that may be effected, by that 

 which has taken place within the last few years, it 

 needs not an over sanguine temperament to believe 

 that, with the rails and electric wires which are now 

 interlacing each other, all over this vast Continent, 

 it is possible to crowd into the short space of a 

 generation, improvements in material prosperity, 

 that in older countries have been the work of cen- 

 turies. I say a generation, not that that period 

 would be necessary to effect in India a creation of 

 wealth unparalleled in the history of nations ; but 

 because the intellectual development of a people is of 

 slower growth, and must always be a work of time. 

 Many nations have grown rich in less than one 

 generation. But no nation on the face of the 

 globe, has made much intellectual progress in 

 less time. Nor will India. Yet until India is 

 educated, be it in one, or be it in ten generations, 

 the full development of her great natural resources 

 cannot be looked for; and until the fulness of 

 that time is come, the duty will be a burden on her 

 Government, which for its own sake, for the sake of 

 its subjects, it will be compelled to accept : for, let 

 it perform the task through its own agency, through 

 the agency of foreigners, or by any other means, 

 the responsibility will rest \*here it was at the begin- 

 ning, with the Government, and the Government 



E2 



