54 



If, in the mean time, outsiders come ; by all means 

 encourage them, help them, and give them every fa- 

 cility for helping- themselves, provided at the same 

 time, they help India ; but good precautions must 

 be taken to ensure that they discharge both duties. 

 To cover India with thousands of middle-men, who 

 should take the place of the native money lenders, 

 as I have seen proposed, would certainly effect a 

 change : but I am not so certain that that change 

 would be for the better. On the contrary, it might, 

 indeed most probably it would induce a very much 

 worse state of things than that w r hich at present 

 exists for, whether true, or whether false, the native 

 cultivators would always believe that these middle- 

 men were backed by the whole weight and power of 

 the Government; and there is no reason to assume 

 that evils which existed for years under a somewhat 

 similar system with Indigo, in Bengal, would not be 

 perpetuated with other crops. The money lender is 

 undoubtedly in some respects a great evil : but he is 

 also in some respects a great good. Could Govern- 

 ment be the means of scattering far and wide over 

 the country a system of small commercial banking 

 establishments, undoubtedly it would confer a lasting 

 obligation on the people could it, by any means, 

 alleviate the evils of the present system of advances 

 it would be doing much good. But to do either, in 

 present circumstances, seems almost impossible ; and 



as regards the East India Civil Services, and as a National 

 Question, pp. 22. London, 1856. 



