New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-06-04
BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
A LAND OF IRoN1Es AND CoNTRADIC-
TIONS.
TIE REWARD OF ENGLISH WORK LARGELY
FAILURE BENEFITS THAT RESULT IN EVIL.
Stevens in The London Mail.


FAILURE BENEFITS THAT RESULT IN EVIL
G. w. Stevens In The London Mail.
II there Is any enterprise In the worlds history
that has deserved to succeed II Is the brltlsh EN-
our connection with the country began as most
legitimate and mutually benencent commerce; II
developed into conquest, not through any Iust Vl
dominion. but almost accidentally ana certaihIy
against will as the Inevitable consequence &c %, OF
The weakness ana Pt empire we have
administered it with "A single-mlnded deN ouon 70
had a parallel We make India pay its own way.
but beyond that Britain gets not penn IRON Si IL
against our own products. and In hundred ways
refuse to facilitate the business OF our own coun
II is sometimes said that India offers favorable
careers for our superhuous youth. This may be
true spiritually; a nation like ours does wen TO
offer adventures to It's sons yet 1t has half dozen
spheres where hardship and dangers can be NAG on
terms as favorable as any that India OFFERS; Ma
teriaily, 1t is enough to say that every officer IN
our service except about thousan1 cv CIVIL Jcryed
the reward Of good work done for its own sake II Is
Britain in India 49,, ,.,,oo,,. ,ro,,, ,bat ,bo
reward of work is largely raure anG TIN, tine
Won might almost imagine there was curse on
British India which ever turns goou ehuedNoiS
'' The great gifts which are suppressed to have
given India are 9seSs ane The one is driving
her neasantry OFF the land the other is preventing
alien conquerors
FORCING JUSTICE on PEOPLE.
1,hsr we say we have given justice we only mean
that we have offered ried to force 1t upon b peo
pies which dislike b ana TGf% o incorrpble judges
whose Experience enables them TO strike rough
balance sc1 Ss 6 Dea up ea
the European Judge and says, You were Wrons SO 70
oro ali living and We-well Of course we He'd. too:
! hut the truth was such and such, ana we were
Wing most and we knew you did your best to de- de-
! eide rightly; only you were wrong As ioI tne
nreme some are incorruptible: there were moor
ruptibes in India before we came: bnt me mass OF
tbev ever We're and with the whole country leagued
: to screen them IT is impossible that they snail be
PSe difference under rule Is not 50 much that
ricb man DEMENT'S under this, for a rajah's govern
ment would seldom let rich man get out Of a law
sSt with nr6Bdon o the old days the poor
debtor protected by the rapacy OF judges ana ,n
r raas d fST G anG s Sasy would
must Took ooE nt Se t Pds But in British
( sacred contract must be upheld, and the ryot Is
The irony Of peace is rs bitter Peace Is some
im war war was the salt that kept india from
decay It caused horrible suffering presumably
Al eas ' conspPed With famine and pestence to
keep the population down: all three have been
digiously increasing multitude is dead weight on
the general prosperity Of native India and night
hut that is not the only nor the dircst curse of
peace. India is effete. II strikes you very very
old-worked out sapless extinct Its peoples, FOR
the most part, are small angud. effeminae. It's
policies. arts. industries, social systems stagnate
and the artificial shackes OF caste bind down theiI
native feebleness TO a complete sterty. Now, the
old periodically refreshed this effeteness with
strains Of more vigorous blood Most OF the great.
est names OF Indian history. the bravest armies
the noblest art belong to races OF newcomers. II
seems that the soil and climate OF India need bu,
three or four generations TO sap the vitality OF tn,
most powerful breed
WHENCE WILL NEW LIFE COME?
Whence is the life to come? From US? The
gulf between Brton and native yawns deep TO
day-perhaps deeper-than when the first English
men set up their factory at surat, Our very virtues
have increased the gap that was In any Ia
evitable between temperaments no opposite as
prltain's and midas. Justice India can do without
for peace IL does not thank us This, too. will grow
worse and worse with time. instead OF better. The
men who know the snfferings OF intestine war ART