inly entitled to credit for the audacious
pluck which they showed when a handful of their soldiers and citizens
conquered that great country with its innumerable inhabitants. The only
thing, however, that made it possible to do so, and which makes it
possible to hold India to-day, is the internal strifes, the jealousies
and the religious intolerance among the natives themselves. If they were
united they could free the country from the foreigners in a month. But
why should they? The country is better governed than ever before, and it
is gaining fast in progress and prosperity. Still there is a deep hidden
feeling of ill-will toward the English, and the time will yet come when
a terrible struggle will be fought in India. Perhaps Russia will have a
hand in the fight. It will be a bloody, savage war, and will cause Great
Britain serious trouble. I said that India is better ruled now than ever
before; but that is not saying much, for it ought to be ruled still
better and more in the interest of the natives. India has civil service
with a vengeance, the office-holding class being even more arrogant,
proud and independent than the titled nobility. They rule the country
with an iron hand, regard it simply as a field for gathering in enormous
salaries, and after twenty-five years' service they return to England
with a grand India pension. The English look down upon the lower classes
with haughty contempt, chiefly because the latter try to insinuate
themselves into favor with the former by means of all kinds of flattery.
Nobody is of any account in India unless he is an officer, either civil
or military; hence all the best talent is circumscribed within narrow
office routine limits, and nothing is left for the peaceful industrial
pursuits except what the government may undertake to do, and that is
usually confined to railroad and canal improvements. England wants India
for a market, therefore nothing is done to encourage manufactures, but
rather to cripple them. With the cheapest and most skilled labor in the
world, the natives of India are compelled to buy even the cotton
garments they wear from England though they raise the cotton themselves,
and England is very careful not to establish a protective tariff in
India.

CHAPTER XVIII.

An Indian Fete--The Prince of Burdwan--Indian Luxury--The Riches and
Romantic Life of an Indian Prince--Poverty and Riches.

I shall now invite my reader to accompany me to the city of B