inactivity, it has weathered many storms and rendered services to the whole community which the Government has felt bound to acknowledge It may be hoped that this influence with the State will not be destroyed, unless something more valuble can be secured in its place. What are the probabilities of any expectation of this kind being realised? As anybody knows, who has studied. the experiences of the non-official European in India for the past half century, as recorded in the press and other annals, no agitation has ever occurred to equal or come near the agitation against the Black Act," of which the last instalment was hurled against the notorious Ilbert Bill. Although some curious writIng has appeared in some sections of the European press, the recent agitation against the Government has been child's play compared with all past Black Act agitations which have united as which have united as one body all Europeans all over India. Bengal has stood alone in its recent fury, while the rest of India has laughed at its mood. Quite possibly, the recent seditious movement in some sections of Indian society has brought home to European minds the need of giving fuller expression to the innate loyalty of all Europeans to the Government than could be found in the rather rabid effusions of unknown writers in the European press. But that is an element in the mental attitude of Europeans in India which can never be overlooked, because it is aways a crowning influence. No truly loyal European in India, no matter what cause of offence he may have against the British Government, would be willing publicly to accept responsibility for some of the lamentable exhibitions which, if they have not actually discredited, have in no way improved the reputation of, the European press. You may be loyal to a State and yet A State may even disapprove its action on occasion. unwisely strain the loyalty of men of its own race. But no loyal European dare in his own name accept some of the effervescences of the more rabid sections of the press, which have been calculated to sow hatred and contempt of the Government in some susceptible minds, and thus come within reach of the criminal law. That no such disloyalty is intended may be clear enough; and intention is the essence of criminality. But in any moral aspect of such questions-and of course the moral is the only scale whose verdicts are lastingly bindingno serious defence is conceivable of some of the political follies with which some anonymous scribblers have unhappily been chargeable. Have these persons struck the note to which all sane and sensible European society will respond in time to come? Or has this society now settled down to a mingled feeling of regret at past excesses and of satisfaction that the storm has blown over? It cannot be overlooked that in propounding more recent demands for some modifications of the changes announced in Delhi on 12th December, such as the retention of a section of the Commercial Department in Calcutta, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, which has specially reserved opportunity for future action has in no way cancelled its original consent to the main policy of the Government-as some writers, anxious to secure absolution for their own earlier excesses, pretend to believe it has. There is no ground for imagining that the Chamber has in any way resiled from its original pronouncement. But what are the prospects, in a fleeting and temporary European community, of a political body which intends to base its future concerns on its past excesses? The writer has enjoyed the advantage of consulting some of the most thoughtful and responsible non-official Europeans in and about Calcutta. Some of them think that the Europeans scattered about in isolated places naturally take stronger views against Indian usurpations, under encouragement from the Government, than do their countrymen grouped in large bodies in protected cities. Some intend to clear out of India. as early as possible and do not care much what happens after they leave, so long as nothing disturbs their investments. Many fear that in yielding to Indian clamour, which has not been raised in the true interests of the voiceless masses, the Government has not acted with wisdom. Others declare that the mercantile and trading interests of India are those with which Europeans are chiefly concerned, and that men everywhere have sometimes to swallow distasteful pills; and that this kind of sacrifice must sometimes be made to a great common cause. Some agree that a powerful European association would be of great help to the State if its members could be counted upon to accept some safe and sensible view unanimously—as was not even done in the great Ilbert Bill agitation when, one rumour has it, a large body of planters and other irresponsible individuals came down to headquarters to oppose the famous "concordat " agreed to by the European Defence Association-but look on such unanimity as practically hopeless. How any society can exist; which claims universal support, in the absence of the universal agreement which most informed opinion has declared to be equally desirable and improbable, is one of those problems into the attempted solution of which inexperienced reformers may rush, without any recollection of past experience and any sense of future responsibility, but in the region occupied by which educated, informed, experienced, self-respecting and responsible persons will naturally fear to tread. But It has been stated, in the loose inconsequential kind of way in which such statements are usually made, that the teeth have been pulled out of merchants in India by the titles and decorations showered on friends of the Government at particular seasons. A private whip, said to have been sent round one of the Calcutta Clubs (shortly before or shortly after one of these periodical showers, which was heavier than usual during a Royal visit) urging friends to be loyal to the Government, may help to inflate rumours of this type for a season. the bearing of any statement, supposing it to be true, on any particular issue in dispute, is one of those ingredients in a discussion which the average man in the street, or on a tumtum for that matter, rarely has the disposition, If he has the informed intelligence, to estimate fairly. Suppose this statement were correct, in what manner does the fact, of which it would then be an indication, tell on the chances of men, likely to get titles or decorations and the friends influenced by them, knocking under a popular agitation, and sacrificing their prospects of a title to the evanescent favour of a mob—a respectable mob it may be, but a mob for all that from the standpoint of public responsibility. Probably, or say even possibly, the wiser and more accurate view to take of the mentality of recipients of Government favours is that, having studied the careers of non-officials in official positions, and found them either influential among their fellows on account of marked personal qualities, or because they have, in pursuing their own interests, also served the State-for the larger interests of all classes and the State are identical-the State has considered But it either prudent or grateful to honour them. whatever be the motive or the arrière pensée of the Government, what support are such influential and responsible persons, usually in good position in their own. society, at all likely to give to popular movements engi. neered by interested parties flying banners of disInterested heroism, and maintained by excitements which notoriously die out in a few months, when subscriptions, however small, begin to be estimated in terms of the benefits received from them? For, say what armchair philosophers or stump orators may, the ruck of mankind, especially persons accustomed to sell things for more than they pay for them, generally measure obligations by this standard; and notable exceptions do not disprove the rule. The unreflecting public, lashed up into a state of excitment under a stimulus of brief potency, may overlook the contingencies that count in any large game intended to produce an effect and to last long. But though dash is a useful element in a forlorn hope the unreflecting mood is not the one from which lasting triumphs issue, comparable with those issued from the brooding evil of premeditation inspired by insight and sustained by foresight. HOTSPUR. |