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lestion of European influence on India, that they 

 require some notice. 



The plan here advised, I would observe, is not 

 essentially at variance with previous practice in 

 India ; but is in strict accordance with the policy 

 which the Government of India has partially pursued 

 with the greatest success. The tea experiment was 

 talked about, written about, for years ; but nothing 

 was done, until a Governor General, suo motu, directed 

 that it should be carried out. It is true that in doing 

 so, many blunders were committed ; some naturally 

 attributable solely to the novelty of the experiment ; 

 but the major portion certainly due to the cause 

 on which I have above laid so much stress want 

 of management. To this cause alone is it due 

 that the Government of India has been a quar- 

 ter of a century in effecting an object which might 

 have been attained in a third of that time ; and 

 in -proof of this we have the plain and simple 

 fact, that at the time the Indian Government 

 had abandoned the experiment in this country 

 as a total failure, the Dutch Government of 

 Java, who commenced their experiments but one 

 year earlier, were exporting tea in large quanti- 

 ties for the markets of Europe. Does any one again 

 dream, that if the Government of India had not 

 taken the initiative in tea, we would now have in 

 India one acre under cultivation with that valu- 

 able plant. I do not think so ; and if others think with 



