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is the same despair at the loss of the home and the disruption of
the family. In spite of efforts and self-sacrifice, often ending
in death on the part of the English famine and plague officers,
there were suffering and misery, and these breed discontent.
Then the troops depart to South Africa; and, later, the garrison
is more seriously weakened by the despatch of an army to China.
Anxiety increases; and, just as the sky is brightening, there comes
"
the news to India that the good Queen is dead. Let Government
look to itself," say the prophets and the pundits; "it was love
and reverence for the Queen that kept us quiet in our misery."
Like a beaver, the quick Viceroy is repairing the dam before the
water has begun to ooze. He is occupying the minds of nearly
300,000,000 human beings with memories of that wise and loving
Queen Mother, and he has pointed their eyes to a Memorial which
will one day rise as witness of India's love. And no sooner have
the hundreds of thousands who mournfully paraded the great
plain of Calcutta to testify to their sorrow melted away, than
the Viceroy sits down to think how quickly and how thoroughly
he may show to India that the King Emperor is but a re-incarna
tion of the lost Queen Empress. The busy brain was at work,
and the far-seeing eye looks over a space of two years to a splendid
pageant at Delhi, when all India shall know and rejoice in the
pomp of the coming of the new King Emperor.
It would be wearisome to recount the reforms which Lord
Curzon, in his almost boyish energy, has taken in hand. His
twelve reforms were the subject of much speculation; for the
most part, they have passed into the region of realization, but if
one studies the Gazettes and published State Papers of India,
from January, 1899, to January, 1903, one might multiply the
twelve by ten, and even then the list of the Curzon reforms
would not be exhausted. Not the reforms of a faddist or a dreamy
student, but simple practical reforms such as a good man of
business in America or England would introduce, if his well
being depended on the business. This Viceroy sees the points of
the game and never loses sight of them. What the points are can
be learned by a very casual reading of Lord Curzon's speeches.
He lands in Bombay on a sunny December morning in 1898, and
is most kindly greeted by the citizens of that most beautiful city.
He comes at once to his point. He believes that:
of which you speak, to the person and the throne of the Queen
"loyalty,
monious union the diverse races and creeds of this country, and which
secures to them the blessings of internal peace and tranquillity; and,
fronted; with his own countrymen, few in number, and scattered far and
wide under a trying climate in a foreign land, and with the manifold
races and beliefs, so and yet so divergent, of the indigenous
composite
in its and ever-multiplying millions. To hold the
population, swarming
scales even under such conditions is a task that calls indeed for supple
fingers and for nerves of steel."
any body of men who are charged with the terribly responsible
spire
task of Indian administration."
tricity, and when the punkahs shall be pulled by the same motive power;
and I believe that if this scheme were to cost half a crore of rupees or
more, it would be money well laid out in the improved health and ?on
tentment of the men, and in the diminution of one of the most frequent
causes of collision between soldiers and natives."
duty upon our shoulders; and that duty is to hold this country by jus
tice, and righteousness, and good will, and to set an example to its peo
ple. You may say why should we set an example, and what example have
we to set? I dare
Well, say we have much to learn as well as to teach.
It would be
arrogant to pretend the contrary. I feel myself that never
a day of my life passes in India in which I do not absorb more than
I can possibly give out. But we have come here with a civilization, an
belongs to
the British race in this country, to set an example. The man
who sets a bad example is untrue to his own country. The man who sets
a good one is doing his duty by this. But how can the drunkard set an
example, and what is the example that he sets? And what sort of ex
discipline and the reputation of the Army, nor even for your own indi
vidual good alone, that I have stood here this afternoon to plead the
cause of temperance in the ranks; but because the British name in India
is in your hands just as much as it is in mine, and because it rests with
you, before God and your fellowmen, to preserve it from sully or re
proach."
Again:
"I am not in the least disturbed by the argument that all this mil
itary expenditure is a waste, and that the money had much better be
spent on projects of economic I would the
development. gladly spend
whole of our revenues in the latter way, but I say frankly that I dare
not. The army is required to make India safe."
posts, but if anything the reverse. The regular troops are with
drawn for a bigger and more effective duty, and wild tribesmen
are enrolled as Frontier Militia. Wild-cat schemes of fortifica
tions in cul-de-sacs are contemptuously countermanded, and
though money is forthcoming for military expenditure, every
T)enny is counted and efficiency is insisted on.
The subject of taxation would require a separate article for
its exposition. Suffice it to say that the revenues of India depend
chiefly on land taxation, and that the happiness and prosperity
of the country depend on that taxation being moderate and evenly
distributed. Land taxation is a special study, and few save the
specialists who have spent their lives in the villages dare mention
the subject. And they as a rule obscure it by technical phrases
which baffle the layman. It came somewhat as a surprise to
officials and to the public generally when the indomitable Viceroy
sat down to study the subject and then issued to the world a
classic on Land Revenue?" no mere departmental defence of our
methods and objects, but a serious and conscientious examination
of the subjects of assessments in relation to the various parts of
India."
up all the best hopes for the future of this country, both for your race
and for mine. We are ordained to walk here in the same track together
for many a long day to come. You cannot do without us. We should
be impotent without you. Let the Englishman and the Indian accept
the consecration of a union that is so mysterious as to have in it some
thing of the divine, and let our common ideal be a united country and a
happim people."
owing for these advantages, and that security cannot be repaid by license,
or the guarantee exercise of wrong.
of rights by the unchartered The
Chief has become, an integral factor in the Imperial
Native by our policy,
organization of India. He is concerned not less than the Viceroy or the
Lieutenant-Governor in the administration of the country. I claim him
as my colleague and He cannot remain vis a vis of the Empire
partner.
a loyal subject of Her Majesty the and vis a visof his
Queen-Empress,
European hotel. These may be his relaxations, and I do not say that
they are not legitimate relaxations; but his real work, his princely duty,
lies among his own people. By this standard shall I, at any rate, judge
him. By this test will he in the long run, as a political institution, per
ish or survive."
" "
That one word colleague was quite enough. No longer a
mere holiday show, but a ruler with enormous powers and re
sponsibilities, working along under Providence to the same end
"
as the great Lord Sahib."
The Imperial Cadet Corps was instituted, by which a career
in the army is opened to the sons of the Chiefs and Nobles of
India, and above all a searching enquiry was made into the special
Colleges of the Chiefs, and various reforms for improving the
education and discipline of these institutions are to be introduced.
All this would have been impossible had it been attempted in an
impersonal manner. But in his short four years Lord Curzon
has visited every Chief of India in his own home, and each one
of them has heard from the Viceroy's own lips what he is trying
to do for him and his descendants. They know he is their cham
pion, and they hail with delight the frequent utterance that they
"
and their sons should still remain Indians, true to their own be
liefs, their own traditions, and their own people."
And now we in the far West must bid adieu to the simple strong
"
man as he fronts the sun in the far East. He is a believer in
taking the public into the confidence of Government. The more
they know, the more we may rely upon their support." He has
reason for his reliance if we read aright the published papers of
the last four years of British rule in India.
Anglo-Indian.