idea of blood was repulsive to educated men like himself, it was only by blood that India could be freed. But these are words, and words of exotically-educated young men, without weight or influence. I look rather to facts and deeds. At the time of our worst reverses in South Africa I was in a very typical part of India where there were only two or three other Englishmen, and where I could be in touch with real Indian feeling in regard to these events. At home men were talking of the decay of the Empire, and were in the deepest depths of gloom. But in India, though Lord Curzon was sending troops away not only to South Africa, but also to China to rescue the beleagured Legations, and though we were suffering from the most terrible famine and the severest visitation of plague in modern times, there was not the slightest sign that the people intended to take advantage of the occasion to turn us out of India. In many a European country, if there had been plague and famine as severe as they were in that year in India, serious riots would have broken out every-where; and if the Government were at the same time weakened by the despatch of its forces on two distant expeditions, the people would have dangerously shaken the fabric of Government. To satisfy ourselves on this point, we have only to look at what is happening in a European country at the present moment But the people of India, far from seeking to cause the Government embarrassment, sought in many ways to strengthen their hands. They had almost more faith in us than some of us had in ourselves. A disaster or two at the beginning of a war was nothing new in their reading of British history. That was merely according to precedent. But the further precedent was that we always pulled through our disasters and came out victors in the end, and so instead of trying to embarrass us they came forward with offers of assistance. Chiefs offered their troops, money, horses, anything that might be useful. Our own Indian troops were deeply disappointed they were not allowed to fight side by side
