The Cairo bulletin., 1907-07-24
HER JUST RULE or LAW.
Why Native Races Accept Eng.
lands Control Of India.

| turned out bis inaccurate, but still in
stractive, esscys on Give ana Ware,
Hastings, says the London Globe. WI
are prone to think that we hold Ini'a
by force. Without force we certainly
could not hold it, but as certainly WI
do not hold 1t by force Lord Curzoi
showed this in his speech To the Hard
wicke society. II we remain In India
Il "a mainly because the millions wh'
inhabit the peninsula are willing tina
we shall abide there The acqnies
ceace Is due to no admiration fol
either our religion or our character
East is still East, and West is still
West, and probably none OF the con.
queFors of India has touched the soul,
OF the populations that inhabit II lesf
than we have done. Nor can we tine
the explanation OF this strange ac
quiescence in the material prosperity
Of the country
IL is true that we have done grenI
deal TO ease the lot OF the toiling ma
tive, but we have not yet freed him
from the scourge OF famine, ana our
taxation Is not to his taste Why
thea, we ask, this acquieseence? Lord
Curzon gives us the answer. Our sys-
tenn of law and Jurisprudence, imper-
feet as it may be, is the one thing that
stands between nationalities OF mil
lions OF souls and anarchy; for we
alone Of the modern rulers OF India
have brought some sense of security To
every dweller in the land. The excel
leneies OF our legal and administra-
tive system in the peninsula may he
ascribed to an enlightened view of our
own sei1-interest Mohammedan anG
Iiindoo, however, are well aware that.
as they never obtained such blessings
from the governments that proceeded
Our own, they would be unlikely 10
obtain them from any conceivable
Hindoo or Mohammedan regime that
might arise on our disappearance. In
deed, the words that Macaulay wrote
In the days when John Company bore
sway probably in their essence repre-.
sent the native Inuian feeling today
more truly than at the time when they
were written
hostile monarch may premise
mountains of gold to onr Sepoys, on
condition that they desert the standard
OF the Company. The Company prom
Uses only a moderate pension after q
long service. But every Sepoy knows
that the promise of the Company will
be kept; he knows that If he lives 100
years his rice and salt are as secure
as the salary Of the Governor General
and he knows that there is not an
other state in India which would not,
In spite of the most solemn vows,
leave him to die of hunger in ditch
as soon as he had ccaeel to be useful.
The greatest advantage which a gov
eminent can possess is TO be the one
trustworthy government in the midst
of governments which nobody can
trust"
The creeds and races OF India today
can trust the British government as
they could never trust each other, So
that without loving their conquerors
they are willing to obey and to defend
them. SO our rule in India reposes on
the same foundations on which the
Roman Empire rested Like it's pro-
totype, 1t has given lin Mommsens
words ito much-tortured natlonali-
ties tranquil evening after a snltry
day" Whether the Pax Britannica
will effect more than this. whether the
fact (of which Lord Curzon reminded
us1 that today the working OF this
great system of law is largely In the
hands Of the native Indians points in
the remote future to an intellectual
reconciliation between Eastern and
Western ideas it would be idle to
speculate.
Let us assume that the establish
ment OF an alien order and Justice IL
our sole gift to our strange depend
ency, the fact Itself will give us
place second only to that of Rome
amid the imperial nations of the eartn
Had we not been an imperial race.
it is certain that we could never have
kept India. At the same time In con-
our success, let us remember
that our very difficulties have in way
been our advantages. For example,
had the climate of India been more
favorable than II is TO our race and
the native population less dense. the
to attempt colonization
would have been irresistible, and II
this had been tried, the blacklist phase
of the irish tragedy might have been
reenacted on colossal scale. Sup
posing again that the natives of the
country had been a white race profess
sing a Christian faith of a different
type from our own. we should never
have troubled 10 understand them and
so should have ridden roughshod over
their prejudices. until We had excited
n them an evaporation that would
have blinded them TO the better quail
ties of our rule Fortunately for our
ielves the faiths and civilizations OF
India were 20 strange to our ideas
that We felt instictively from the first
that here we we're face to face with
-