Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/142

 seated. The fault is not in the men, whose average character and abiUties are of a high order, but in the system, which places them in a position antagonistic to popular aspirations ; which gives them autocratic power without effective control ; which stimulates selfish ambi- tion, and penalizes independence of judgment. The treatment of Mr. Hume at headquarters resulted naturally from the hostility of the class of men who, under the existing system, are the most successful in reaching the top of the official ladder ; and for this the system is to blame. But in order to understand the unholy spirit generated in the inner official clique at Simla, it is necessary to bear in mind the conditions which govern recruitment and promotion in the Indian Civil Service. The old Company's system of nomination and training at Haileybury College, which kept the Civil Service in the hands of families traditionally connected with India, had its defects, but it also tended to maintain among the members of the service a certain atmosphere of friendly sympathy with the people. This atmosphere of sympathy was dissipated by the adoption of competitive examina- tions, Nvhich brought into the service a new class of men, self-confident, ambitious, and usually unconnected with India. These young men, coming to India fresh from their academic studies, without experience of English public life, and placed almost at once in posi- tions of authority over men of another race, form exactly the material needed to produce an extreme bureaucrat. Nor does their subsequent experience in a close service tend to correct the failings appurtenant to this character. For the conditions of promotion to high office are peculiar, owing to the violent oscillations of policy to which the Government of India is subject. At one time we have adventure abroad and retrogression at home, under Lord Lytton, followed, under Lord Ripon,