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 knowledge and the insufficient opportunities of acquiring knowledge of Indian questions possessed by most Members of Parliament, it is perhaps a matter of congratulation that the Government of India is so largely left in the hands of that noble body of civil servants, who do now, as they have done for many years past, constitute one of the finest services that the world has ever known.

But there are questions gradually rising above the horizon of Indian politics, too important to be decided by any body of civil servants, however capable, and still less by an Assembly which has not the leisure they demand. The most important of these questions is how far the natives of India are to be admitted to a share in the government of their country. If that question could be decided by applying the principles of English politics to India, the solution would be comparatively easy, but few people who have any knowledge of Indian matters would dream of suggesting such a solution. A movement has been in progress for some years past to urge the claims of the natives of India to representation in the government of their country, and the demands of the supporters of this movement have taken shape in the programme of the so called Native Congress. It is to me clear that, as the logical outcome of our system of education, gradual concessions will have to be made to the demands of the party represented by the Congress; and the representative principle may be partially introduced in the constitution of provincial councils. But any attempt to govern India now or in the near future, through the medium of representative institutions, would, in my opinion, be absolutely impracticable. Those people who 11