ally where there was any great difference from those of the United Kingdom. The task has demonstrated the many and various interests contained in this vast subject, and has far exceeded the original limit. It is, however, hoped that the wider public to which the articles now appeal will be as sympathetic as the original audiences. WM. SHEOWRING, Hon. Sec, Institute Committee. SOUTH PLACE INSTITUTE, FINSBURY, LONDON, E.C. PAGE By ROMESH DUTT, C.I.E. (Lecturer in Indian History By ROMESH DUTT, C.I.E. (Lecturer in Indian History at INTRODUCTION BY SIR RAYMOND WEST, LL.D., K.C.I.E. (Lecturer on Indian Law, Cambridge University; Author of "The Bombay Code," "Hindu Law," &c.) IT is chiefly as mistress of India that the greatness of England is measured by foreign nations. For ourselves, familiarity has dulled the wonder with which we should else regard the picture of our growth in empire and in imperial capacity. It has lessened the awe with which we face our task of government, if it has not impaired our sense of responsibility. It has given a faith strong, though unostentatious, in our national destiny, a reliance on what we deem fairness and sound principles, a disregard, if not disdain, for prophetic anticipations, and a too far-reaching policy which makes us content in a great measure to accept things as they are, to put troublesome problems aside and trust to the expedients which the future will suggest as sufficient to meet the difficulties it will bring. the past in its marvellous unfolding seems natural and necessary because the immediate causes are discerned. The remoter possibilities, the influences by which they were directed to the precise ends of greatness and beneficence actually attained, are wholly or almost ignored. The practical man is content to accept the boons of Providence, the results of genius in statesmanship, without attempting to penetrate into their All hidden working, and to the "soul of the machine." Such resting on the surface comports well with the Englishman's general disinclination for abstract thought. It prevents some waste of energy in the pursuit of specious but only half-thought-out projects. But in the presence of any great moral movement, of any great disturbance of physical or economical conditions, it is well-nigh helpless. Its inductions are too meagre, its grasp of principles too weak, for aught but a repetition of processes which no longer suit the enlarged needs of a new generation. The foreigner meanwhile, as he looks on the work achieved by our countrymen in India, is struck with a kind of bewilderment. The Englishmen he meets are too often rather narrow-minded, dogmatic, and disdainful of strange views, and creeds, and manners. Individually so poor as a rule in mental endowment, how have they as an aggregate risen so nearly to the height of their great destiny, succeeding so often when others seemingly more highly gifted have failed? The answer is to be found partly in that very narrowness which at an advanced stage becomes an embarrassment. The typical Briton is so little troubled with far-reaching speculations, that he can find a satisfying and intense interest in the work that stands immediately before him. In details that call for close and continued attention he is more patient and precise than ordinary The answer is to be found still more in his tolerance, his aloofness, and his general good faith. These qualities, as they have become historical, have become also, we may trust, more deeply rooted in the national character, and united with steadfastness of purpose, will long form a warrant for our imperial pretensions. But whereas in the past the necessities. of our situation, and the impulses of a courageous temperament, have carried us on from point to point, in a half-blind, instinctive perception of what was men. |