rk of thwarting and undermining each other.

What could a collector do single-handed against a host of clerks and
subordinate magistrates and petty officials of every grade, all armed
with the awfulness of a heaven-born sanctity, all hedged round with the
prestige of an ancient supremacy, endowed with a mole-like genius for
underground work which the Englishman never fathoms, and all leagued
together to suck to the uttermost the life blood of those inferior
castes which were created expressly for their advantage?

_He_ is working in a foreign language, among customs and ways of thought
which it takes a lifetime to understand: _they_ are using their mother
tongue and handling matters that they have known from childhood. _He_
cannot tell a lie and is ashamed to deceive: _they_ are trained in a
thrifty policy which saves the truth for a last resort in case
everything else should fail. He would be helpless in their hands as a
sucking child. But he knows they will do for him what he cannot do for
himself. The Purbhoo will lie in wait for the Brahmin, and the Brahmin
will keep his lynx eye on the Purbhoo. And woe to the one who trips
first. So the collector arranges his men with judicious skill to the
fostering of each other's virtue, and the result is most gratifying.
The country blesses his administration, and his subordinates are equally
surprised and delighted at their own integrity.

I speak of a wise and able administrator. There are men in the Indian
Civil Service who are neither wise nor able, and some who are not
administrators at all, having most unhappily mistaken their vocation.
When such a one becomes collector of a district his _chitnis_, or chief
secretary, sees that that tide in the affairs of men has come which,
"taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," and his caste-fellows all
through the service are filled with unholy joy. But he does nothing rash
or hasty. Wilily and patiently he goes to work to make his own
foundation sure first of all. He studies his chief under all conditions,
discovers his little foibles and vanities and feeds them sedulously. He
masters codes, rules and regulations, standing orders, precedents and
past correspondence, till it is dangerous to contradict him and always
safe to trust him. In every difficulty he is at hand, clearing away
perplexity and refreshing the "swithering" mind with his precision and
assurance. He becomes indispensable. The collector reposes absolute
confidence