he has developed in his
Congress, and latterly in the Moslem League, free popular
convocations which express his ideals. We owe him sympathy because
he has conceived and pursued the idea of managing his own affairs,
an aim which no Englishman can fail to respect. He has made a
skilful, and on the whole a moderate, use of the opportunities
which we have given him in the legislative councils of influencing
Government and affecting the course of public business, and of
recent years he has by speeches and in the press done much to
spread the idea of a united and self-respecting India among
thousands who had no such conception in their minds. Helped by the
inability of the other classes in India to play a prominent part he
has assumed the place of leader; but his authority is by no means
universally acknowledged and may in an emergency prove weak.

The prospects of advance very greatly depend upon how far the
educated Indian is in sympathy with and capable of fairly
representing the illiterate masses. The old assumption that the
interests of the ryot must be confided to official hands is
strenuously denied by modern educated Indians. They claim that the
European official must by his lack of imagination and comparative
lack of skill in tongues be gravely handicapped in interpreting the
thoughts and desires of an Asiatic people. On the other hand, it is
argued that in the limited spread of education, the endurance of
caste exclusiveness and of usages sanctioned by caste, and in the
records of some local bodies and councils, may be found reasons
which suggest that the politically-minded classes stand somewhat
apart from and in advance of the ordinary life of the country. Nor
would it be surprising if this were the case. Our educational
policy in the past aimed at satisfying the few who sought after
English education, without sufficient thought of the consequences
which might ensue from not taking care to extend instruction to the
many. We have in fact created a limited _intelligentsia_, who
desire advance; and we cannot stay their progress entirely until
education has been extended to the masses. It has been made a
reproach to the educated classes that they have followed too
exclusively after one or two pursuits, the law, journalism, or
school teachi