ome English, which proved
that he was a man of a certain degree of education. On my return to my
estates I found that, though the natives had heard of the Assembly
(probably because the native representative lived within a few miles of my
house), no one seemed to take any interest in its proceedings, and I do
not remember having been asked a single question with reference to it. The
explanation, of course, of this state of things is that the people are
perfectly contented, and satisfied with the steady progress they see going
on around them. There is therefore no demand[14] for representative
institutions, or the acquisition of power by the people, for while they
see abundant signs of progress, there is no oppression, and therefore
there are no real grievances. But, though there is no such demand, I must
caution the reader against supposing that I do not attach much importance
to the Assembly as a highly valuable means of bringing the people and
their rulers into friendly touch with each other, and as a most useful
means of inter-communication regarding every fact that it is important for
the ruler and the ruled to know. Such an assembly is indeed of the highest
value, and I have no doubt that a similar kind of assembly would be
valuable in many parts of India. And such assemblies will in the future be
far more necessary and valuable than such institutions would have been in
the past, because, in former times, the rulers, not being nearly so much
burdened with office and desk-work as they now are, had far more leisure
time to mix with the people, and hear from them the expression of their
wants or grievances.

I have alluded previously to the lying and seditious pamphlets which have
been circulated by the so-called Indian National Congress (and I say
so-called because, as we shall see, there is really nothing national about
it), and allude to them again partly in order to point out that they are a
most cheering evidence of the universal good government in India, because,
had it been really ill governed, there would have been no occasion to
issue the pamphlets in question. The fact is, that the agitators of the
Congress found it necessary to create a case as a ground-work for
demanding representative institutions for India, and began by imitating
the action of the Irish agitators. And here, for the benefit of those who
have not had time to study Indian affairs, it may be as well to give a
brief description of the Indian C