6. If the British were to abandon India to-morrow they would leave behind them a grand memorial of their works for the good of the country, in their schools and colleges, their telegraphs, railways, roads, bridges, canals, reservoirs, and river embankments. People who have only seen such things in our own island-home, have no conception of the great scale on which such works have been carried out in a large country like India—a country as large as all Europe, leaving out Russia—where the rivers are immense, and subject to terrible floods from the down-pouring tropical rains which fall most copiously on the southern slopes of the Himalayas.
7. It is true that we do not give India the same kind of government we give Canada and Australia. We are obliged to govern India, not according to the notions of the natives, but according to our own. We take care, however, to keep order and see justice done, not only in the provinces under direct British rule, but also in the dependent states, which occupy about two-fifths of the country, and contain one-fourth of the population. There are no less than seven hundred of these states, great and small; none of them may make alliance with any other state except Britain; each of them must admit a British resident, who keeps an eye on its government. If any prince, after repeated warnings, fails to reform, he is replaced by another native, for Britain annexes no longer. On the other hand, a prince who does his duty and governs wisely, receives from the Emperor some mark of distinction or titular honour, nowhere in the world more valued than in India.
8. It will be seen then that our government of India is despotic, like that of a schoolmaster, who makes his own laws and administers them for the good of his scholars. There is, however, this difference. In India, the natives themselves are admitted to a large share in the administration of the laws and in the service of the state, an arrangement tending to keep the educated natives contented and to train them for the work of self-government.
9. On the whole, it may be said with truth that there is nothing more wonderful in the history of the world than that, under the flag of these two little islands, there should have grown up the greatest and most beneficent despotism that the world has sees. The very face of the country has changed; pestiferous swamps have been drained, and are now fertile lands with healthy cities. Wide tracts of jungle, the secure refuge of evil beasts, have been reclaimed. The great rivers are now brought under control; canals receive their surplus waters, and instead of causing desolation, bring fertilizing streams to a thirsty land. Railroads transport corn and rice through tunnels cut in the mountains, and across mighty rivers, to distant famine-stricken districts. In short, the story of India's progress under British rule is one of which we may well be proud.
10. The advantage, however, has not been all on one side. The connection with India has brought, and still brings, much grist to our own mill. It provides high salaries for about eight hundred of our most competent countrymen, acting as governors, magistrates, and high state officials; it offers employment for our engineers and land surveyors; it serves as an excellent training-ground for our officers and soldiers; and, above all, it opens up a splendid trade to our merchants and manufacturers. Were India to fall into the hands of a foreign power, like Russia, our merchants would probably find themselves, if not shut out entirely from the markets of India, much hampered in doing a profitable business. But with the government in our own hands we can make such regulations as tend to the mutual advantage of the two countries. So flourishing is the trade between them now that its annual value amounts to more than £50,000,000.
11. Such being the mutual advantages to India and Britain of our rule in that great country, it would be an indelible stain on our name and nation, if through indifference, or negligence, or faint-heartedness, we were to lose an empire built up by so much genius and heroism under the controlling hand of an unseen Power.
"We sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty state;
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Thro' craven fears of being great."
(Australia).
1. To measure the progress that has been made by our kinsmen in Australia, we must know something of the country in its natural condition, and of the special difficulties they have had to contend with. One of these difficulties was of our own making, and that was the landing there of shiploads of our worst criminals, many of whom fled to the "bush," and preyed upon the lonely settlers, or committed outrages upon the natives, who naturally tried to take revenge upon any white men that came in their way.