r
perhaps to the young mind to apply the precedent to his own country; but
as soon as he falls under the influence of the political agitator the
question, suggests itself: If the English people thus fought their way
to supremacy, why should not the Indian people do the same? Losing
sight of the perspective of history, it seems to him feasible that India
should achieve in one bound what it took nearly a thousand years for the
English people to bring about.

(2) In studying political economy and social science he meets with such
principles as these--that the ruler is merely the delegate and
representative of the people, from whose will he derives all his power.
This power is to be exercised for the well-being of the people who have
conferred it, and according to their will in conferring it. The old idea
that all power, even that conferred through the people, is ultimately
derived from God and exercised in His Name, is of course never heard of.
The ruler is a public servant of the collective nation, and that is all.
To introduce this notion among a people whose idea of government has run
for thousands of years on the lines of absolute monarchy and hereditary
if not divine right is nothing short of revolutionary. All idea of the
sacredness of authority is at once gone. The Government is a thing to be
dictated to by the people, to be threatened and bullied and even
exterminated if it does not comply with the nation's wishes. Hence as
soon as the political agitator appears on the scene nothing seems more
plausible to the raw mind of the student than an endeavour to upset the
existing order of things. This cannot, of course, all be done at once;
but at least a beginning can be made. Let us agitate for the redress of
this or that grievance, for the increase of native appointments, and the
like; and if we do not at once get what we ask for, let us try what
bullying and intimidation can do--aspiring ultimately to substitute a
representative for a monarchical form of government, and having secured
this, wait the opportune moment for driving the foreigner into the sea.
Thus a change which, to be successful, would require the gradual
education of the people for generations, is to be forced on at once; and
"if constitutional means are not sufficient to achieve our ambition, why
not try what unconstitutional means will do?"

NOTE 19

A SHAMELESS APPEAL.

Perhaps the most audacious defence of the enlistment by Hindu
politicians of