ng conversant with the general
business of the country, beyond those which are enjoyed by persons
whose service has been confined to any one locality.

I think that the Legislative branch of the Governor-General's Council
should be a channel through which officers of the other Presidencies
may be introduced into the Secretariat and Council at Calcutta.

* * * * *

_To Sir Charles Wood._

Simla: May 21, 1863.

[Sidenote: Aristocracies.]

I have no objection _prima facie_ to an aristocracy, and I am quite
ready to admit that conflicting claims of proprietorship in the same
lands are an evil; but I also know that, even in our old Christian
Europe, there are not many aristocracies that have had salt enough in
them to prevent them from rotting. And when I consider what Oriental
society is; when I reflect on the frightful corruption, both of mind
and body, to which the inheritors of wealth and station are
exposed--the general absence of motives to call forth good instincts,
or of restraints to keep bad in check--I own that I do not feel quite
sure that, even if we could sweep away all rights of sub-proprietors
or tenants, and substitute for the complications incident to the
present system an uniform land-tenure of great proprietors and tenants
at will, we should be much nearer the millennium than we are now....

[Sidenote: Against intermeddling in foreign politics.]

I am wholly opposed to that prurient intermeddling policy which finds
so much favour with certain classes of Indian officials. It is
constantly thrusting us into equivocal situations, in which our acts
and our professions of respect for the independence of other nations
are in contradiction, and in which our proceedings become tainted with
the double reproach of inconsistency and selfishness. Nothing, in my
opinion, can be more fatal to our prestige and legitimate influence.
My modest ambition for England is, that she should in this Eastern
world establish the reputation of being all-just and all-powerful;
but, to achieve this object, we must cease to attempt to play a great
part in small intrigues, or to dictate in cases where we have not
positive interests which we can avow, or convictions sufficiently
distinct to enable us to speak plainly. We must interfere only where
we can put forward