Hindostan.
Hindostan is a vast country in Asia, containing almost one half as much territory as the whole of Europe, and one hundred and forty millions of inhabitants.
Yet Hindostan is governed by Great Britain, which is almost ten thousand miles distant—which has but twenty-four millions of people, and a territory not more than one tenth part as large as that of Hindostan.
How is Great Britain able to govern such a vast country—so superior in extent and in population, and at the same time so distant? It is done by the superior knowledge, energy and skill of the English people. The people of Hindostan are ignorant and indolent; they are content to dwell in houses made of bamboo-cane, covered with palm leaves: they love to sit for hours in indolent repose, careless of the past and the future: they are satisfied with a little rice for food, and a tea-cup full will suffice for a day. Such a people become an easy prey to such busy, grasping people as the English. A few thousand British soldiers keep one hundred and forty millions of Hindoos in subjection. It is indeed a wonderful thing, and it shows what a mighty difference there is between an educated and industrious people and an ignorant and lazy people.