278 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOUT. 



pied by incompetent officers, most honourable to Great 

 Britain ; and the names of "\Valker, Jacob, Lang, 

 Keatinge, and other officers, who effected the greatest 

 changes in the province, are respected and even revered 

 by chiefs and people alike. A similar general remark 

 may be truly made in regard to our position almost 

 everywhere in India ; and the explanation is not far 

 to seek. In these past times, our representatives in 

 India sought to carry out the interests, the imperial 

 aims, of their country, and to act upon its large hu- 

 mane motives. There was no notion then of curry- 

 ing favour with the children of India, bending to 

 their prejudices, seeking their approval, and prepar- 

 ing for vast disaster by pampering and pushing forward 

 unprepared sections of the people, such as the sepoys 

 of the Indian Mutiny and the "educated natives" 

 and Indian servants of the present day. The English- 

 man of those old times had a mission in India and 

 was free to carry it out ; and a consciousness of that 

 animated his whole life, quickened his energies, ele- 

 vated his mind, and, strange to say, made him loved 

 as well as respected among the people of India. Ani- 

 mated by that consciousness, he Avas able to mingle 

 freely with the people, and knew them as almost none 

 of our later officers have done. There was no super- 

 ciliousness in his demeanour towards them, no con- 

 tempt for their more harmless manners and customs, 

 no rude and brutal behaviour towards them. But 

 towards the period of the Indian Mutiny a change 



