53 



or encourage, or set up others to do it for them, no* 

 body else will. 



( In India/ I have observed elsewhere, ' we have 

 as yet no communes, no town councils, no mayors 

 or corporations, no religious and charitable societies, 

 &c. those noble institutions, which, while rendering 1 

 Englishmen a self-governing people, make the office 

 of Home Secretary comparatively a sinecure.* A 

 civil commissioner there, is a viceroy the Govern- 

 ment, both King and Father. Is a bridge, jail, church, 

 or school to be built, a road, railway, or canal to be 

 made, a country to be drained, cleared, or watered, 

 Government must do the work it alone must bear 

 the cost. No aid from interested parties is solicited, 

 or expected. No advice which local experience might 

 elsewhere render valuable, is looked for, or tendered. 

 The Government of India is the natives' Kamdenu 

 the cow upon whom all have a claim, and whose 

 powers of supply are deemed alike everlasting and 

 inexhaustible. To bear the herculean weight of its 

 burdens it must be provided with the shoulders of an 

 Atlas.'f 



* Since the above was written municipalities have been in- 

 troduced into India ; but the municipality of Calcutta is already 

 nearly half a million sterling in debt ; and it has been stated in 

 the debates in the Governor General's Council, that the Octroi 

 duties in some towns are interfering with Imperial taxation. 

 Englishmen being birds of passage in India, it is very difficult 

 to entrust them with powers of taxation, and natives do not 

 understand the principles on which such institutions are formed, 

 nor do they appreciate what Europeans think essential to health 

 and comfort. 



t instruction in the Oriental Languages considered, specially 



