WORK OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL 225 
in emoluments due to so-called “reorganizations ” 
had not kept pace with these changes, and in 
result the efficiency of the department was being 
lowered, while recruitment presented continual 
difficulties. In Europe competition to enter the 
service had practically ceased; in India desirable 
applicants were scarce. 
An eminent Viceroy once expressed horrified 
surprise that every public Service in India was 
pressing for better conditions of service ; the mental 
shock might have been softened had he recalled 
Becky Sharp’s remark that it is easy to be honest 
on £5,000 a year, and then noted that the members 
of the Indian Civil Service, a body of men who 
make the laws of the country and apply them, and 
who fill most of the lucrative civil posts even 
outside their own service, were not averse from 
accepting compassionate allowances when promotion 
was slow, or from proposing and receiving better 
pensionary terms, meaning larger deferred pay ; and 
had he also considered that those Services which 
did not enjoy equal advantages might be in even 
worse circumstances : for the smaller the income, the 
less is the margin for adjustment of expenditure to 
meet any adverse change in the conditions of daily 
life. 
The cash requirements of the Indian peasantry 
are small. They live on their autumn crops, and pay 
the rent from the winter harvest; the homestead 
supplies nearly every necessary of daily life, save 
perhaps the cotton cloth or woollen blanket that 
forms the wardrobe; but when Government Service 
prohibits the enjoyment of home life, expenses rise to 
15 
