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 defences of the Lucknow Residency, and to know that our wives and daughters are of the same blood, and that the women of Shakespeare and Walter Scott still live amongst us.

But to turn to more sordid considerations. The employment in the civil administration which India offers to some of our best young men is not without its value to the nation from a pecuniary point of view. But in that respect it is not a matter of much concern. The whole Indian Civil Service consists of about eleven hundred members. If it were closed, the competition in the home professions would be keener, but the class that provides the successful candidates would not be left without careers possibly more remunerative than service in India. In other directions the nation would suffer, although it might not be conscious of its loss. It is a gain, I think, to the whole country to have a number of capable men sent yearly to India, where they are not only trained in the best administrative school in the world, but have their minds opened by contact with wider conditions, with greater problems, and with a variety of races and religions. Although when they retire on their pensions some of them may be bores, and a few may be little better than Jos Sedleys, yet the greater number are men improved by discipline, by responsibility of a character hardly understood in England, and by long experience in the work of ruling men. The little leaven must have some appreciable effect on English character and opinion.

If we seek to appraise the purely pecuniary value of India to England, we must look at the trade returns. Everyone in England knows that no tribute, direct or indirect, is derived from India. She recovers from her Dependency all expenditure on the upkeep of the British forces in India and a contribution towards the cost of the East India Squadron. But if it is taken into consideration that the maintenance of seventy thousand men in India makes recruiting for the British army generally more difficult, and that the responsibility of