ccidental education; we applied that, and a
measure of occidental machinery must follow. Legislative Councils once
called into existence, then it was inevitable that you would have
gradually, in Lord Salisbury's own phrase, to popularise them, so as
to bring them into harmony with the dominant sentiments of the
people in India. The Bill of 1892 admittedly contained the elective
principle, and our Bill to-day extends that principle. The noble Lord
(Viscount Cross) will remember the Bill of 1892, of which he had
charge in the House of Commons. I want the House to be good enough to
follow the line taken by Mr. Gladstone, because I base myself on that.
There was an amendment moved and it was going to a division, but Mr.
Gladstone begged his friends not to divide, because, he said, it was
very important that we should present a substantial unity to India.
This is upon the question of either House considering a Bill like the
Bill that is now on the Table--a mere skeleton of a Bill if you like.
I see it has been called vague and sketchy. It cannot be anything
else, on the broad principle set out by Mr. Gladstone--

"It is the intention of the Government [that is, the Conservative
Government] that a serious effort shall be made to consider
carefully those elements which India in its present condition may
furnish, for the introduction into the Councils of India of the
elective principle. If that effort is seriously to be made, by
whom is it to be made? I do not think it can be made by this
House, except through the medium of empowering provisions. The
best course we could take would be to commend to the authorities
of India what is a clear indication of the principles on which we
desire them to proceed. It is not our business to devise machinery
for the purpose of Indian Government. It is our business to give
to those who represent Her Majesty in India ample information as
to what we believe to be sound principles of Government: and it
is, of course, the function of this House to comment upon any case
in which we may think they have failed to give due effect to those
principles."

I only allude to Mr. Gladstone's words, in order to let the House know
that I am taking no unusual course in leaving the bulk of the work,
the details of the work, to the Government of India. Discussion,
therefore, in Parliament will necessarily not, and cannot, turn
substantially upon d