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That from the traditional and lon^-established Indian 

 administrative point of view, Lord Mayo was right in 

 considering the expenditure likely to be involved pro- 

 hibitive, no experienced Indian oflScial will deny. But 

 the question remains whether from the earliest period 

 of our rule our administration, as regards this most 

 important matter, has not been utterly and funda- 

 mentally wrong ; whether we have not systematically 

 ignored the gold at our door-steps, while we moved 

 heaven and earth to scrape together copper from all 

 quarters of the globe ; whether our present position, 

 as regards local agriculture, after so long a period of 

 rule, is not the very most conspicuous blot on our ad- 

 ministration ; and whether many of the more serious of 

 our internal troubles, past and present, debt, famine, 

 and discontent, have not been mainly and directly due 

 to the long-continued failure to realise what is alike our 

 duty and our interest, where agriculture is concerned. 



Our mighty military expenditure has always been 

 (whatever people unacquainted with the country may 

 think) to a very great extent beyond our control. 

 The exigencies of our position, and the irrepressible 

 growth of our empire, have been such as to render 

 impracticable any great reduction in this item. 



But in our civil expenditure, which really was within 

 control, we have, with the best of intentions, mis- 

 applied too large a share of the limited funds available. 



We have gone on elaborating in every branch highly 

 organised systems of administration which were alike 

 beyond the wants and the wealth of our Indian 

 fellow-subjects. 



So long as the masses of the population remained 



