assured that the Government will have a full justification for the course they have pursued. Meanwhile all we care to show is that there has been no wanton attempt to embroil this country in a quarrel with other countries, and that if in striving to carry out a policy the reverse of that of Lord Beaconsfield they have been compelled to do things, which of their own free choice they would have avoided, they have sought to maintain the true honour as opposed to the flashy glory of this country. We are not concerned to defend every step in this Egyptian business taken by the Government; maybe that they themselves with the experience they have gained would not repeat all they have done; but we maintain that they have done nothing to forfeit the general confidence of those who brought them into power in 1880, and that, on the contrary, they are entitled to a full renewal of that confidence when the time comes for them to seek it.

What will be the result of the next election, no one can pretend to foresee. The new constituencies are as yet untried; the now enfranchised millions have yet to show their preferences. But there can be no doubt as to the importance of the issue before the country. It is not too much to say that practically there is but little difference between this and that which was fought out in 1880. It is to a large extent a personal issue-Gladstone or Salisbury? But these men are the living personification of two opposite principles, and those are therefore the chief objects of interest. Have we any reason to suppose that Mr. Gladstone has gone back upon the principles he represented in 1880? Have we any evidence that Lord Salisbury has repented him of the mischievous braggadocio that had disgusted the country before the last general election? Has he not, on the contrary, afforded ample reason why the country should refuse to transfer the reins of Government from those who now hold them to the feeble hands of a party with no policy of its own, and which is content to mar where it cannot make, and to spend its time in vain and unpatriotic scoldings? There is much yet which remains to be done before the Liberal party can afford to rest and be thankful. Shall that be entrusted to Lord Salisbury or to Mr. Gladstone? That is the question which will have to be answered; that is the question upon which we think the Liberal party may go to the new electors with a confident expectation of a favourable response. Representative government is on its trial. Already it is hinted that attempts will be made by the party which is in a hopeless minority to discredit the new House of Commons. Whether those attempts will be worse in character

than some that have been witnessed of late in this Parliament, we cannot say; but all true Liberals should be on their guard to elect representatives pledged to maintain the traditions, the efficiency, and the supremacy of the representative chamber.

ART. II.-Our Countrymen in India.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the first English East India Company was formed. Little did the merchants who formed that Company think, when they were equipping their first two vessels for the voyage to the far East, that they were inserting the thin edge of the wedge which would open up the whole of the Indian Continent to the dominion of their country. The Portuguese had been left for a whole century to prosecute their crusading, trading, and conquering enterprises, unchecked by the presence and opposition of Western nations. With the opening of the eighteenth century their monopoly ceased. Along with the English, the Dutch with characteristic vigour and courage entered the field, and before these energetic rivals the power of the Portuguese gradually waned, till they became the shadow of what they once had been. Other European nations, the Danes, the Swedes, and the French, sent out their fleets to secure a share in this new and lucrative trade. They came frequently into collision with each other, as well as with the natives. The keen contest between Dutch and English ended in the Dutch obtaining the advantage in the Eastern islands, while the English secured a firmer footing on the Continent.

The history of India during the eighteenth century is very tangled. All through it we see the different European nations prosecuting their respective designs, carrying on their commercial transactions with the natives, sometimes at amity with them, sometimes at enmity, sometimes wronged by them, at other times wronging them, continually striving to outstrip each other, and not infrequently at open war with each other. One of the most notable features of the century was the war for supremacy between the French and English, from which the English came forth victors. The difficulties of Europeans were greatly increased, and their ambition fired, by the manifest breaking up of the Mogul Empire, and by the formation of new states under the rule of daring adventurers, who snatched at the falling sceptre.

From the middle of the century, especially from the battle of Plassey, in 1757, dates the supremacy of England in India. It does not come within our object to trace the course of events. All interested in the history of India can find ready access to books which furnish full information. How unintentionally, we may say how blindly, we entered on this great enterprise; how entirely unforeseen the issue was; how complication followed complication, till we were shut up either to go forward, or leave India altogether; how order after order was sent from home to arrest the progress of conquest; how governor after governor went out charged to confine himself within the acquired territory; how speedily the peaceful policy commanded and intended gave place to war; how every power on the Indian Continent contended with us, and in the end succumbed; how victories were won by armies with small European contingents, but mainly composed of native soldiers led by European officers; how at a recent period our own native army rose fiercely against us, and after inflicting on us great disasters was utterly overthrown; how our rule has extended over the entire Continent to a degree unknown since it became the abode of human beings, the native governments that remain over about a fifth of the population acknowledging our suzerainty, ruling in accordance with our general policy, and resting on our power for their stability-all this marvellous course of events is unfolded in the history of our nation in India during the last century and a half.

To our position in India no parallel can be found in the history of the world, when we consider the extent of the population subject to us, the differences in race, language, religion, and condition by which that population is distinguished, and the completeness and directness with which our rule is administered. In the most prosperous days of the Roman Empire its subject population is not supposed to have greatly exceeded a hundred millions. As to the great monarchies which have filled the world with their fame, such as the Assyrian and the Persian, their conq ests were to a large degree successful raids, which resulted in tribute paid to them for a time, but leading to actual government to a very limited extent. Most of the countries overrun by the hordes of Jenghis Khan and Tamerlane were never, in the proper sense of the words, subject to these fierce military leaders. The population of India, according to the census of 1880-81, was close on two hundred and fifty-four millionsnearly one-fifth, it is reckoned, of the human family, two hun

dred millions being directly under British rule, and the remaining millions under native rulers, who own fealty to our Queen. The contrast is remarkable between the extent of the British possessions in Asia and those of other European powers. Russia rules fifteen millions, the Netherlands twenty-three and a half millions, Spain four and a half millions, Portugal one million, and France two millions.'*

What is our character in India? in what relation do we stand to the people? what is our bearing towards them? how are we employed? what are the advantages and disadvantages of our lot ?-these and similar inquiries belong to what may be called the European-in-India question, or ratheras the members of other European nations are few, and with the small exception mentioned have no authority-the English-in-India question, applying the name English to all who go out from the British Isles. The question recommends itself to every one possessed in any degree of patriotic feeling. In the case of the many who have relatives in India, or transact business with it, or expect to go to it, the feeling is reinforced by personal considerations, and is increasingly ready to welcome information. The object of this article is to gratify this feeling by giving information acquired, not from hearsay and books, but by observation and experience, extended over many years in intercourse, more or less intimate, with our countrymen of every class.

We must first refer to the immense disparity in numbers between the European and the native population. According to the last census the number of Europeans among nearly two hundred and fifty-four millions was 140,000, of whom 63,000 were British soldiers, leaving 77,000 for the nonmilitary classes, of whom nearly 8,000 were natives of the European Continent and of America. In South Africa Europeans are few compared with the native population, but the disparity is far less than in India.

As the land is densely peopled, the more fertile and better known parts in many places over-peopled, with a constant tendency to increase, we are shut out from all colonizing effort. There are undoubtedly large districts capable of supporting a larger population than they have, but these will be required for the superabundant population of other districts. Apart from the people of India requiring the country for themselves, there is not a single region within its bounds where the settlement of ordinary European colonists could fail to have a disastrous effect on the native inhabitants. The * Dr. George Smith's ' Geography of British India.'

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history of the world tells us what the effect is of a people of stronger type and higher civilization coming into close contact with a weaker or less civilized race, how the stronger race prevails, often by the very vices it fosters, till the weaker is effaced. There is no need for our going to India in quest of colonial field. In America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, the inhabitants of Europe pressed at home have abundant room for expansion.

The climate of India furnishes an insuperable obstacle to European colonization. Human beings are very elastic in accommodating themselves to new climatic influences, as is shown by the experience of our people in the new lands to which they have proceeded; but there are climates where out-door employment, such as is necessary in agriculture, is utterly beyond the endurance of those who come from lands where milder seasons prevail. We cannot conceive Englishmen following the plough under the fierce rays of an Indian sun, but even if they could, there is a large body of labourers at hand ready to do such work on terms which no Englishman could accept.

There is as little room in India for artisans as there is for agricultural labourers. Apart from the manual toil they would have to endure in sweltering heat for months in the part of India we know best, there is no place for them, as native artisans with simple implements turn out excellent work, with which Englishmen could not compete in price, and sometimes not in quality. We need not mention how differently circumstanced our workmen of every class, skilled and unskilled, are in our colonies.

There are, indeed, some districts in India where the climate suits the European constitution well, and where the land is very partially occupied, but the advantages of soil and market are not such as would reward European effort, except in the production of such things as tea, coffee, sugar, and indigo, which pay only where cheap native labour can be obtained.

As we are shut out in India from the spheres open to us in the great regions, towards which there is a continual outflow of our population, what is our natural calling in that great land? What are the spheres we are called to occupy? In answer to this question we would say our work is to preserve peace, to guard life and property, to preside over the administration of affairs, to organize and conduct new industries, to carry on commerce between India and Europe, to put down atrocious rites, to take the lead in all civilizing effort-in short, to avail ourselves of the facilities furnished us by our para