At the beginning of the last century there were among the great founders of our Indian Empire many who had the most intimate knowledge of the people, and had been most successful in dealing with them, who conceived that our part was so to train and educate the people of India that they would eventually be able to rule themselves. Such great Anglo-Indians as Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone and Sir John Malcolm held this view. They were men of marked ability, and distinguished in a special degree for sympathy with the people, and they thought that by the end of a century we should make our bow, and leave India to be governed by the Indians. Yet now that a century has gone by there seems a less, not a greater, probability that this will happen. We hear it is true of men who very
- ↑ When the Senate of Cambridge University honoured me with an invitation to deliver the Rede Lecture this year, they asked me to select my own subject, and I chose the question of 'Our True Relationship with India,' because I thought that the views of one who had for many years worked in close contact with the people of India might be of interest to those who from the heart of the Empire insensibly, but profoundly, influence the actions of us their agents on the outskirts. By the kindness of the authorities of the University I have been permitted to include this lecture in the present series of articles on Imperial subjects.
599
