nent being in its favour, non-officials almost to a man have been
bitterly opposed to it. Where I have spent the greater part of my life,
nothing has been more common than complaints by Europeans of injustice
done to them by partiality shown to natives at their expense. Are we to
look to the great landholders, bankers, merchants, shopkeepers, and
well-to-do classes in the cities of Bengal and the North-West, who have
benefited most by our rule? What may be expected from them is
illustrated by the fact that when the finances were thrown by the Mutiny
into confusion, many protested against an income tax, and some of high
position proposed that the finances should be rectified by an increase
of the salt-tax! In these influential classes there are high-minded and
benevolent individuals, but if we look at them in their collective
capacity we shall be disappointed. When we look at the long roll of
distinguished Indian officials, mark their achievements, hear their
protests against what they deemed hurtful measures, and their advocacy
of beneficial changes, I think we find in them India's warmest friends,
who have done it the most signal service, and from whom more can be
expected than from any other class.

There are ample materials for arriving at correct views regarding the
condition of India and the way in which it is governed. No Parliamentary
Committee, no Royal Commission, is required to elicit the facts. The
recently completed "Gazeteer" of India, in which Dr. Hunter and his
assistants had been engaged for years, furnishes full and reliable
information. The state of India is described in that imperial work with
a frankness and fulness which leave nothing to be desired. If one of our
great writers, who has secured the ears of our country, would set to the
drawing up of a volume of moderate size, founded on the "Gazeteer,"
showing in a readable interesting form what has been done and what has
been left undone, what has been done well and what has been done ill,
and if the intelligent people of our country could be induced to give it
a careful perusal, untold good would be done both to England and to
India. Nothing would please Indian officials more than the eye of
England being thus fixed on their doings and misdoings, that the whole
truth might be known, and praise and censure be justly distributed, and
still more that the changes most beneficial to the people might be
effected.

[Sidenote: THE BEST GOVERNORS FOR INDIA