WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.240 Chapter eighteen B of Considerations on Representative Government. This LibriVox 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:09.919 recording is in the public domain. Considerations on Representative Government 3 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:15.759 by John Stuart Mill, Chapter eighteen B. The government of 4 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.199 a people by itself has a meaning and reality, But 5 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:21.760 such a thing as government of one people by another 6 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:26.640 does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another 7 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:29.280 as a warren, or preserve for its own use a 8 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:31.920 place to make money in a human cattle farm, to 9 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:35.920 be worked for the profit of its own inhabitants. But 10 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.799 if the good of the governed is the proper business 11 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:42.320 of a government, it is utterly impossible that a people 12 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:46.000 should directly attend to it. The utmost they can do 13 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:48.280 is to give some of their best men a commission 14 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:50.799 to look after it, to whom the opinion of their 15 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:53.200 own country can neither be much of a guide in 16 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:56.439 the performance of their duty, nor a competent judge of 17 00:00:56.479 --> 00:01:00.399 the mode in which it has been performed. N One 18 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.200 consider how the English themselves would be governed if they 19 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.599 knew and cared no more about their own affairs than 20 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.599 they know and care about the affairs of the Hindus. 21 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:12.920 Even this comparison gives no adequate idea of the state 22 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.920 of the case. For people thus indifferent to politics altogether 23 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:21.760 would probably be simply acquiescent and let the government alone, 24 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.840 whereas in the case of India, a politically active people 25 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.760 like the English, amid habitual acquiescence, are every now and 26 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:33.959 then interfering, and almost always in the wrong place. The 27 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:38.359 real causes which determine the prosperity or wretchedness, the improvement 28 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.760 or deterioration of the Hindus are too far off to 29 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:45.159 be within their ken. They have not the knowledge necessary 30 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:48.959 for suspecting the existence of those causes, much less for 31 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.400 judging their operation. The most essential interests of the country 32 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:57.359 may be well administered without obtaining any of their approbation, 33 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:02.120 or mismanaged to almost any excess without attracting their notice. 34 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:05.760 The purposes for which they are principally tempted to interfere 35 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:09.639 and control the proceedings of their delegates are of two kinds. 36 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.599 One is to force English ideas down the throats of 37 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:16.919 the natives, for instance, by measures of proselytism or acts 38 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.719 intentionally or unintentionally offensive to the religious feelings of the people. 39 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:28.240 This misdirection of opinion in the ruling country is instructively exemplified. 40 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.639 The more so because nothing is meant but justice and fairness, 41 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.000 and as much impartiality as can be expected from persons 42 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.159 really convinced by the demand now so general in England 43 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:41.800 for having the Bible taught at the option of pupils 44 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:45.400 or of their parents in the government schools. From the 45 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:48.560 European point of view, nothing can wear a fairer aspect 46 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.000 or seem less open to objection on the score of 47 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.560 religious freedom. To Asiatic eyes, it is quite another thing. 48 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:57.800 No Asiatic people ever believes that a government puts its 49 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:02.199 paid officers and official mischie maenery into motion unless it 50 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:06.039 is bent upon an object, And when bent on an object, 51 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:09.840 no Asiatic believes that any government, except a feeble and 52 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:14.960 contemptible one, pursues it by halves. If government schools and 53 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.960 schoolmasters taught Christianity, whatever pledges might be given of teaching 54 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.439 it only to those who spontaneously sought it, no amount 55 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:25.680 of evidence would ever persuade the parents that improper means 56 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.719 were not used to make their children Christians or at 57 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:32.680 all events outcasts from Hinduism. If they could, in the 58 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:35.479 end be convinced of the contrary, it would only be 59 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:39.520 by the entire failure of the schools so conducted to 60 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:43.439 make any converts. If the teaching had the smallest effect 61 00:03:43.479 --> 00:03:46.159 in promoting its object, it would compromise not only the 62 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:50.639 utility and even existence of the government education, but perhaps 63 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:54.840 the safety of the government itself. An English Protestant would 64 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:59.039 not be easily induced by disclaimers of proselytism to place 65 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:02.840 his children in a Roman Catholic seminary. Irish Catholics will 66 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:05.199 not send their children to schools in which they can 67 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:08.919 be made Protestants. And we expect that Hindus, who believe 68 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.319 that the privileges of Hinduism can be forfeited by a 69 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.719 merely physical act, will expose theirs to the danger of 70 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:19.199 being made Christians. Such is one of the modes in 71 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:22.000 which the opinion of the dominant country tends to act 72 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:27.199 more injuriously than beneficially on the conduct of its deputed governors. 73 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.439 In other respects, its interference is likely to be oftenest 74 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:36.120 exercise where it would be most pertinaciously demanded, and that 75 00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:38.800 is on behalf of some interest of the English settlers. 76 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:43.480 English settlers have friends at home, have organs, have access 77 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:46.199 to the public, They have a common language and common 78 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.040 ideas with their countrymen. Any complaint by an Englishman is 79 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:54.199 more sympathetically heard, even if no unjust preference is intentionally 80 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.519 accorded to it. Now, if there be a fact to 81 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:01.600 which all experience testifies, it is that when a country 82 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:05.279 holds another in subjection, the individuals of the ruling people 83 00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:08.680 who resort to the foreign country to make their fortunes are, 84 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:10.959 of all others, those who most need to be held 85 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.560 under powerful restraint. They are always one of the chief 86 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:18.920 difficulties of the government. Armed with the prestige and filled 87 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:22.680 with the scornful overbearingness of the conquering nation, they have 88 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:27.279 the feelings inspired by absolute power without its sense of responsibility. 89 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.920 Among a people like that of India, the utmost efforts 90 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:33.759 of the public authorities are not enough for the effectual 91 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:37.120 protection of the weak against the strong, And of all 92 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:41.399 the strong, the European settlers are the strongest. Wherever the 93 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:44.480 demoralizing effect of the situation is not in a most 94 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.600 remarkable degree corrected by the personal character of the individual, 95 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.519 they think the people of the country mere dirt under 96 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:55.199 their feet. It seems to them monstrous that any rights 97 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:57.519 of the natives should stand in the way of their 98 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:02.000 smallest pretensions. The simplest act of protection to the inhabitants 99 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:04.800 against any act of power on their part which they 100 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:08.920 may consider useful to their commercial objects, they denounce and 101 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:13.360 sincerely regard as an injury. So natural is this state 102 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:17.480 of feeling in a situation like theirs, that, even under 103 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:20.639 the discouragement which it has hitherto met with from the 104 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:24.040 ruling authorities, it is impossible that more or less of 105 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:28.879 the spirit should not perpetually break out. The government itself, 106 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.199 free from this spirit, is never able sufficiently to keep 107 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:34.639 it down in the young and raw, even of its 108 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:37.920 own civil and military officers, over whom it has so 109 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:41.920 much more control than over the independent residence. As it 110 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:45.600 is with the English in India, So according to trustworthy testimony, 111 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:48.319 it is with the French in Algiers, so with the 112 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.759 Americans and the countries conquered from Mexico. So it seems 113 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:56.040 to be with the Europeans in China, and already even 114 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:59.600 in Japan. There is no necessity to recall how it 115 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.319 was with the Spaniards in South America. In all these cases, 116 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:06.720 the government to which these private adventurers are subject is 117 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:08.920 better than they and does the most it can to 118 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:13.319 protect the natives against them. Even the Spanish government did 119 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:17.839 this sincerely and earnestly, though ineffectually, as is known to 120 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:22.279 every reader of mister Help's instructive history. Had the Spanish 121 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:26.439 government been directly accountable to Spanish opinion, we may question 122 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.319 if it would have made the attempt, For the Spaniards, 123 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.560 doubtless would have taken part with their Christian friends and 124 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:36.959 relations rather than with Pagans. The settlers, not the natives, 125 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.680 have the ear of the public at home. It is 126 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:43.519 they whose representations are likely to pass for truth, because 127 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:45.959 they alone have both the means and the motive to 128 00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:50.920 press them perseveringly upon the inattentive and uninterested public mind. 129 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.759 The distrustful criticism with which Englishmen, more than any other 130 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.639 people are in the habit of scanning the conduct of 131 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.519 their country towards foreigners, they usually reserved for the proceedings 132 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.720 of the public authorities. In all questions between a government 133 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:10.120 and an individual, the presumption in every Englishman's mind is 134 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:12.879 that the government is in the wrong, and when the 135 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:16.279 resident English bring the batteries of English political action to 136 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.720 bear upon any of the bulwarks erected to protect the 137 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:24.279 natives against their encroachments. The executive, with their real but 138 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.839 faint viliities of something better, generally find it safer to 139 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:31.319 their parliamentary interest, and at any rate less troublesome to 140 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:35.240 give up the disputed position than to defend it. What 141 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.399 makes matters worse is that when the public mind is 142 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:41.279 invoked as to its credit, the English mind is extremely 143 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:44.360 open to be in the name of justice and philanthropy, 144 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:47.559 in behalf of the subject community or race, there is 145 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:50.399 the same probability of its missing the mark. For in 146 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:55.559 the subject community also there are oppressors and oppressed powerful 147 00:08:55.559 --> 00:09:00.240 individuals or classes and slaves prostrate before them. It is 148 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:02.799 the former, not the latter, who have the means of 149 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:07.080 access to the English public. A tyrant or sensualist who 150 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:10.080 has been deprived of the power he had abused, and 151 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:13.879 instead of punishment, is supported in as great wealth and 152 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:18.039 splendor as he ever enjoyed. A knot of privileged landholders 153 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.840 who demand that the state should relinquish to them its 154 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:24.000 reserved right to a rent from their lands, or who 155 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:27.080 resent as a wrong any attempt to protect the masses 156 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:31.600 from their extortion. These have no difficulty in procuring interested 157 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.120 or sentimental advocacy in the British Parliament and press, the 158 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:43.080 silent myriads obtain none. The preceding observations exemplify the operation 159 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.279 of a principle which might be called an obvious one, 160 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.159 were it not that scarcely anybody seems to be aware 161 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:53.159 of it. That while responsibility to the governed is the 162 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:57.639 greatest of all securities for good government, responsibility to somebody 163 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:00.960 else not only has no such tendency, but is as 164 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:04.960 likely to produce evil as good. The responsibility of the 165 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:07.879 British rulers of India to the British nation is chiefly 166 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:11.279 useful because when any acts of the government are called 167 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:15.679 in question, it insures publicity and discussion, the utility of 168 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:18.919 which does not require that the public at large should 169 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:22.840 comprehend the point at issue. Provided there are any individuals 170 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.720 among them who do for a merely moral responsibility, not 171 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:30.879 being responsibility to the collective people, but to every separate 172 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:34.240 person among them who forms a judgment, opinions may be 173 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.360 weighed as well as counted, and the approbation or disapprobation 174 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:42.080 of one person well versed in the subject may outweigh 175 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:44.679 that of thousands who know nothing about it at all. 176 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:49.080 It is doubtless a useful restraint upon the immediate rulers, 177 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.360 that they can be put upon their defense, and that 178 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.879 one or two of the jury will form an opinion 179 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:58.559 worth having about their conduct, though that of the remainder 180 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:02.360 will probably be several reads worse than none. Such as 181 00:11:02.360 --> 00:11:05.080 it is, this is the amount of benefit to India 182 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:08.919 from the control exercised over the Indian government by the 183 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:13.840 British Parliament and people. It is not by attempting to 184 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:16.879 rule directly a country like India, but by giving it 185 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:19.600 good rulers, that the English people can do their duty 186 00:11:19.639 --> 00:11:22.200 to that country, and they can scarcely give it a 187 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:25.360 worse one than an English cabinet minister who is thinking 188 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:29.639 of English not Indian politics, who does not remain long 189 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:32.919 enough in office to acquire an intelligent interest in so 190 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:38.000 complicated a subject upon whom the factitious public opinion got 191 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.399 up in Parliament, consisting of two or three fluent speakers, 192 00:11:41.559 --> 00:11:44.480 acts with as much force as if it were genuine, 193 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:47.679 while he is under none of the influences of training 194 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:51.480 and position which would lead or qualify him to form 195 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:55.600 an honest opinion of his own. A free country which 196 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:59.879 attempts to govern a distant dependency inhabited by a dysmo 197 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:03.200 people by means of a branch of its own executive 198 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:07.240 will almost inevitably fail. The only mode which has any 199 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:11.120 chance of tolerable success is to govern through a delegated 200 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:15.120 body of a comparatively permanent character, allowing only a right 201 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:19.279 of inspection and a negative voice to the changeable administration 202 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:22.360 of the state. Such a body did exist in the 203 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.320 case of India, and I fear that both India and 204 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:29.039 England will pay a severe penalty for the short sighted 205 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:33.080 policy by which this intermediate instrument of government was done 206 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:37.000 away with. It is of no avail to say that 207 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:40.240 such a delegated body can not have all the requisites 208 00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:43.960 of good government. Above all, cannot have that complete and 209 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:47.759 over operative identity of interest with the governed, which it 210 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.840 is so difficult to obtain. Even where the people to 211 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:53.879 be ruled are in some degree qualified to look after 212 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:57.960 their own affairs. Real good government is not compatible with 213 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.919 the conditions of the case. There is but a choice 214 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:05.039 of imperfections. The problem is so to construct the governing 215 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.759 body that, under the difficulties of the position, it shall 216 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:12.399 have as much interest as possible in good government and 217 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.799 as little in bad now. These conditions are best found 218 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:21.120 in an intermediate body. A delegated administration has always this 219 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:24.639 advantage over a direct one, that it has, at all 220 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:28.679 events no duty to perform except to the governed. It 221 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.879 has no interests to consider except theirs. Its own power 222 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.639 of deriving profit from misgovernment may be reduced. In the 223 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:40.159 latest Constitution of the East India Company, it was reduced 224 00:13:40.679 --> 00:13:44.039 to a singularly small amount, and it can be kept 225 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:48.000 entirely clear of bias from the individual or class interests 226 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:51.799 of anyone else when the Home Government and Parliament are 227 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.039 swayed by such partial influences in the exercise of the 228 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.960 power reserved to them. In the last resort, the intermediate 229 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.240 body is the certain advocate and champion of the dependency 230 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:07.000 before the imperial tribunal. The intermediate body, moreover, is, in 231 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:10.480 the natural course of things, chiefly composed of persons who 232 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:14.679 have acquired professional knowledge of this part of their country's concerns, 233 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:17.679 who have been trained to it in the place itself, 234 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:21.320 and have made its administration the main occupation of their lives. 235 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:26.000 Furnished with these qualifications, and not being liable to lose 236 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:29.559 their office from the accidents of home politics. They identify 237 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:33.480 their character and consideration with their special trust, and have 238 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.240 a much more permanent interest in the success of their 239 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:40.360 administration and in the prosperity of the country which they administer, 240 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.000 than a member of a cabinet under a representative constitution 241 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.960 can possibly have in the good government of any country 242 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.679 except the one which he serves. So far as the 243 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:53.320 choice of those who carry on the management on the 244 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:57.879 spot devolves upon this body, their appointment is kept out 245 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.679 of the vortex of party and parliamentary jobbing, and freed 246 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:04.039 from the influence of those motives to the abuse of 247 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:08.120 patronage for the reward of adherents, or to buy off 248 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:11.759 those who would otherwise be opponents, which are always stronger 249 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.399 with statesmen of average honesty than a conscientious sense of 250 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:19.200 the duty of appointing the fittest man. To put this 251 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.279 one class of appointments, as far as possible, out of 252 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:25.559 harm's way is of more consequence than the worst which 253 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.960 can happen to all other offices in the state. For 254 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:33.279 in every other department, if the officer is unqualified, the 255 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.600 general opinion of the community directs him in a certain 256 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:39.279 degree what to do but in the position of the 257 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.600 administrators of a dependency where the people are not fit 258 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:45.360 to have the control in their own hands. The character 259 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:49.960 of the government entirely depends on the qualifications, moral and 260 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:55.799 intellectual of the individual functionaries. It cannot be too often 261 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:59.600 repeated that in a country like India, everything depends on 262 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:03.519 the person, no qualities, and capacities of the agents of government. 263 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:08.200 This truth is the cardinal principle of Indian administration. The 264 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:10.440 day when it comes to be thought that the appointment 265 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.679 of persons to situations of trust from motives of convenience, 266 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:17.960 already so criminal in England, can be practiced with impunity 267 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:21.200 in India, will be the beginning of the decline and 268 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:24.960 fall of our empire. There, Even with the sincere intention 269 00:16:25.080 --> 00:16:27.919 of preferring the best candidate, it will not do to 270 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:32.159 rely on chance for supplying fit persons. The system must 271 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:36.240 be calculated to form them. It has done this hitherto, 272 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:39.120 and because it has done so, our rule in India 273 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:42.720 has lasted and been one of constant, if not very rapid, 274 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:47.840 improvement in prosperity and good administration. As much bitterness is 275 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:52.039 now manifested against this system, and as much eagerness displayed 276 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:55.639 to overthrow it, as if educating and training the officers 277 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:59.080 of government for their work were a thing utterly unreasonable 278 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:04.680 and indefensible, an unjustifiable interference with the rights of ignorance 279 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:08.759 and inexperience. There is a tacit conspiracy between those who 280 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:11.839 would like to job and first rate Indian offices for 281 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.519 their connections here, and those who, being already in India, 282 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:18.559 claim to be promoted from the Indigo factory or the 283 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:22.359 attorney's office to administer justice or fix the payments due 284 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:26.200 to government for millions of people. The monopoly of the 285 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.079 civil service so much inveighed against, is like the monopoly 286 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:34.079 of judicial offices by the bar, and its abolition would 287 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:36.720 be like opening the bench in Westminster Hall to the 288 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:39.759 first comer whose friends certified that he has now and 289 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:44.480 then looked into Blackstone. Were the course ever adopted of 290 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:47.799 sending men from this country or encouraging them in going 291 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:51.200 out to get themselves put into high appointments without having 292 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:54.440 learned their business by passing through the lower ones, the 293 00:17:54.519 --> 00:17:57.680 most important offices would be thrown to Scotch cousins and 294 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:01.359 adventurers connected by no professional feeling with the country or 295 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:05.039 the work held to no previous knowledge, and eager only 296 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:08.640 to make money rapidly and return home. The safety of 297 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:11.880 the country is that those by whom it is administered 298 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:15.519 be sent out in youth as candidates, only to begin 299 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:18.359 at the bottom of the latter and ascend higher or not, 300 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:23.759 as after a proper interval they are proved qualified. The 301 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.839 defect of the East India Company's system was that though 302 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.279 the best men were carefully sought out for the most 303 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:33.880 important posts, yet if an officer remained in the service, promotion, 304 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.599 though it might be delayed, came at last in some 305 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:39.160 shape or order to the least as well as to 306 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:43.240 the most competent. Even the inferior in qualifications. Among such 307 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.759 a corps of functionaries consisted. It must be remembered of 308 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.359 men who had been brought up to their duties and 309 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:53.039 had fulfilled them for many years at lowest without disgrace 310 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:56.480 under the eye and authority of a superior. But though 311 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.720 this diminished the evil, it was nevertheless considerable. A man 312 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:03.519 who never becomes fit for more than an assistant's duty 313 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:08.000 should remain an assistant all his life, and his juniors 314 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:12.279 should be promoted over him. With this exception, I am 315 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:14.960 not aware of any real defect in the old system 316 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.519 of Indian appointments, it had already received the greatest other improvement. 317 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:22.920 It was susceptible of the choice of the original candidates 318 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:27.799 by competitive examination, which besides the advantage of recruiting from 319 00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:31.640 a higher grade of industry and capacity, as the recommendation 320 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:35.079 that under it. Unless by accident, there are no personal 321 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:38.279 ties between the candidates for offices and those who have 322 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:41.640 a voice in conferring them. It is in no way 323 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.200 unjust that public officers, thus selected and trained should be 324 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:50.359 exclusively eligible to offices which require specially Indian knowledge and experience. 325 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:54.200 If any door to the higher appointments, without passing through 326 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.680 the lower be opened, even for occasional use, there will 327 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:00.799 be such incessant knocking at it by persons of influence 328 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:03.319 that it will be impossible ever to keep it closed. 329 00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:07.400 The only accepted appointment should be the highest one of all. 330 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:11.240 The Viceroy of British India should be a person selected 331 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:15.279 from all Englishmen for his great general capacity for government. 332 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:18.440 If he have this, he will be able to distinguish 333 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:21.400 in others and turn to his own use that special 334 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.400 knowledge and judgment in local affairs which he has not 335 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:28.400 himself had the opportunity of acquiring. There are good reasons 336 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:30.680 why the Viceroy should not be a member of the 337 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:35.480 regular service. All services have more or less their class 338 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:39.160 prejudices from which the Supreme Ruler ought to be exempt. 339 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:42.920 Neither are men, however, able and experienced, who have passed 340 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:46.039 their lives in Asia, so likely to possess the most 341 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:51.079 advanced European ideas in general statesmanship, which the chief ruler 342 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:53.839 should carry out with him and blend with the results 343 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:57.599 of Indian experience. Again, being of a different class, and 344 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:00.799 especially if chosen by a different authority, he will seldom 345 00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:04.920 have any personal partialities to warp his appointments to office. 346 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:09.039 This great security for honest bestowal of patronage existed in 347 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:12.279 rare perfection under the mixed government of the Crown and 348 00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:16.759 the East India Company. The supreme dispensers of office, the 349 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:21.359 Governor General and governors were appointed in fact, though not formally, 350 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:25.279 by the Crown, that is, by the general government, not 351 00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:28.319 by the intermediate body, and a great officer of the 352 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:31.559 Crown probably had not a single personal or political connection 353 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:35.279 in the local service, while the delegated body, most of 354 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:38.759 whom had themselves served in the country, had and were 355 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:43.759 likely to have such connections. This guarantee for impartiality would 356 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:47.240 be much impaired if the civil servants of government, even 357 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:50.160 though sent out in boyhood as mere candidates for employment, 358 00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:54.200 should come to be furnished in any considerable proportion by 359 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:59.200 the class of society which supplies viceroys and governors. Even 360 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:03.960 the initiatory or competitive examination would then be an insufficient security. 361 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:09.119 It would exclude mere ignorance and incapacity. It would compel 362 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:11.720 youths of family to start in the race with the 363 00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:15.519 same amount of instruction and ability as other people. The 364 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.880 stupidest son could not be put into the Indian service 365 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:22.440 as he can be into the church, but there would 366 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.519 be nothing to prevent undue preference afterwards, No longer all 367 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:30.000 equally unknown and unheard of by the arbiter of their lot, 368 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:33.119 a portion of the service would be personally, and a 369 00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:37.880 still greater number politically in close relation with him. Members 370 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:41.079 of certain families and of the higher classes and influential 371 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:45.960 connections generally would rise more rapidly than their competitors, and 372 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:49.079 be often kept in situations for which they were unfit, 373 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.880 or placed in those for which others were fitter, the 374 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:56.599 same influences would be brought into play which affect promotions 375 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.160 in the army and those alone. If such miracles of 376 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:04.240 simplicity there be who believe that these are impartial, would 377 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:07.880 expect impartiality in those of India. This evil is, I 378 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:12.279 fear irremediable by any general measures which can be taken 379 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:16.000 under the present system. No such will afford a degree 380 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:20.559 of security comparable to that which once flowed spontaneously from 381 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:25.519 the so called double government. What has accounted so great 382 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:27.839 an advantage in the case of the English system of 383 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:31.880 government at home has been its misfortune in India that 384 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:35.359 it grew up of itself, not from preconceived design, but 385 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:40.359 by successive expedients and by the adaptation of machinery originally 386 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.200 created for a different purpose. As the country on which 387 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:47.160 its maintenance depended was not the one out of whose 388 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:51.079 necessities it grew, its practical benefits did not come home 389 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:53.480 to the mind of that country, and it would have 390 00:23:53.559 --> 00:23:59.599 required theoretic recommendations to render it acceptable. Unfortunately, these were 391 00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:03.119 exactly what it seemed to be destitute of, and undoubtedly 392 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:05.720 the common theories of government did not furnish it with 393 00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:09.640 such framed as those theories have been for states of circumstances, 394 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:13.720 differing in all the most important features from the case concerned. 395 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:17.680 But in government, as in other departments of human agency, 396 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:21.799 almost all principles which have been durable were first suggested 397 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.559 by observation of some particular case in which the general 398 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:28.920 laws of nature acted in some new or previously unnoticed 399 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:34.000 combination of circumstances. The institutions of Great Britain and those 400 00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:37.759 of the United States have the distinction of suggesting most 401 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:41.240