Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1888-07-25
THE WHITES IN INDIA.
THE CORPORATION AND GARRISON
WHICH FORM 1.-THE EMPIRE

No White sTaa Proposes 20 Remain An
India--what Would Happen il the
Brown Men Struck. English Onclals
Tarry but a Few Years.
Above this incoaceivablc mass of hu-
manity. governing all, protecting all, tax
ing all, rises what sve call hero s'the en-
pire," corporation Of less than fifteen
hundred men, part chosen by eyamina
tion, part by co-optation, who are set to
govern, and to protect themselves in gov
erning by finding pay for minute white
garrison of Cl.O00 men. one-fifth of the
Roman legions-though the masses to be
controlled arc double the subjects of
Rome--lcss than the army of Sweden, or
Belgium. or Holland. That corporation
and that garrison constitute the Indian
empire. There is nothing else. Danish
those iften hundred men in black, defeat
that slender garrison in red, and the en-
pire has ended, tho structure disappears
and brown India emerges unchanged and
Interchangeable. To support the official
world and its garrison-both, recollect,
smaller than those of Belgium--there is,
except Indian opinion. absolutely nothing
NO ONE WILL STAY.
Not only is there no white race in India,
not only is there no white colony, but
there is no white man who purposes to
remain. Lord Dufferin. whom we scarcely
think of as middle aged, is possibly the
oldest, certainly among the oldest, of
white men in India. No rulerstays there.
to help or citicise or moderate his sue
cessor. No successful white soldier
founds family. No white man who
makes a fortune builds house or buys
an estate for his descendants. The very
planter, the very engine driver, the very
foreman Of works, departs before he is go,
leaving no child, or house or trace of him.
self behind. No white man takes root in
India, and the number even of sojourners
is among those masses imperceptible The
whites in our own three capitals could
hardly garrison them, and outside those
capitals arc. except in government en-
ploy, only few planters, traders and pro-
fessional lacn, far fewer than the black
men in London
In q city like Bcnares, a stone city
whose buildings rival those of Venice, a
city Of temples and palaces beautiful
enough and original enough TO be a
worlds wonder, yet III which no white
mans brain or hand has designed or ex-
ecutod anything, traveller might live q
year talking only with the learned or the
rich, and unless he had official business
to do, might never sec white face And
away from the stations" planted outside
the native cities it is so everywhere.
There arc 10 white servants, not even
grooms, no white policemen, no white
postmen, no white anything. If the
brown men struck for q week, the "em-
pire" would collapse like house of cards,
and every ruling man would be starv-
ing prisoner in his own house. He could
not move or feed himself or get water.
NOTHING is PERMANENT.
shall not soon forget the observation
of one of the kcenest and most experienced
of all observers who arrived in India dur
ing the mutinv. He had just landed, and
had consented TO drive with me to house
sixteen miles out of Calcutta On the
road, as usual. lie noted everything, but
at last turned to me with tho question:
"Where, then, are the white menfp "No-
where, was the only possible reply; and
1t is true of the entire continent. This
absence of white men is said to be due to
climate. bCt even in "the hills" no one
settles. Englishmen live on the sultry
plains of New South Wales; Americans,
who arc only Englishlnen q little desic-
Gated, arc illling up the steamy plains of
Florida; Spaniards have settled as gov
erning caste throughout the tropical sec
tions of tho two americas; Dutchmen
dwell on Java; but the English, what
ever tho temptation, will not stay in
India. 70 matter what the sacrifice,
whether In money. or dignity or pleasant
occupation. al uncomfortable disgust, an
overpowering sense Of being aliens mex
orably divided from the people Of the
land, ccsaes upon them, and they glide
silently away.
1t follow that even in the minute
official world and the minute garrison
nothing Is permanent The viceroy rules
for iivo years. and departs. The coun-
cilor advises for five years, and departs.
The general commands for five years. and
departs. The official serves for thirty
years, probably il ten separate countries,
and departs. There Is not in India one
ruling man whom two generations Of In
dams havc known as ruling man. OF all
that in Europe comes of continueusness,
heredity, accumulated personal expert
ence, or the wisdom Of old age, there Is in
India not one trace, nor can there ever be.
Imagine If in Europe no sovereign or
premier or commandments ever lived
six years! Yet these men. thus shifting,
thus changing, do the whole work Of leg
islating, governing, and administering,
all that is done in the whole of Europe by
all tho sovcreigns, all the statesmen, all
tho parliaments. all the judges, revenue
boards. projects, magistrates, tax gath
erers and police officers. They ere tho
empire, and there Is no other Meredith
Townsend in Fortnightly Review.