to
towns, to rise at an arranged signal, attack the houses of the rich, and
force them, often under torture, to reveal their treasures. No longer
are Thugs, professional murderers, left to arrange their plans for
insinuating themselves into the goodwill of travellers, with a view,
when the opportunity came, to throttling their victims, robbing them,
and then burying them, that all mark of their deeds might be effaced.
From Dacoity and Thuggery Europeans had nothing to fear, but natives
suffered frightfully; and special departments were formed for their
suppression. In Northern India, at least, these bands of robbers and
murderers have been broken up. No longer are the lives and property of
the people at the disposal of their rulers, as was to a large extent the
case previous to the British era. They are now under the aegis of law.

If any one think that the advantages thus conferred by the establishment
of a stable government are of little value, all we can say is they have
no conception of the misery brought on thousands from generation to
generation, when these advantages were unknown.

Never was a comparatively small nation entrusted with so vast a work as
that committed to us by our undertaking to administer the government of
a continent thousands of miles from our shores, inhabited by two hundred
and fifty-four millions, who differ widely from us in language,
religion, habits, history, associations--in almost everything in which
one nation can differ from another. Two hundred millions are under our
direct rule, and the rest are under native rulers who acknowledge our
Queen as suzerain. It would have been a miracle had we not in the course
of our government, during more than a hundred years, done many unwise,
many wrong, even many cruel things. He would be a bold man who would
stand forth and maintain we had done good, and only good, to the nations
of India. We take no such optimist position. You can adduce many things
in our dealings with the people which the best of the officials have
themselves condemned, and you can mention evils which have followed our
rule for which we can scarcely be said to be responsible. This, however,
we say with the fullest conviction, as the result of long residence in
India and of extensive observation: that considering our position as
Western strangers, and the difficulties with which we have had to
contend, our Government has had a success far greater than could have
been anticipat