the high road to
end his days. Another had stolen on the high road, and the Nawab
ordered him to have his stomach slit open and to be flung in a drain,
I could not ascertain what the others had done, but both their heads
were cut off. While all this passed the dinner was served, for the
Nawab generally eats at ten o'clock, and he made us dine with him.'
(Ibid., pp. 290-3.) Such swift procedure and sharp punishments would
still be highly approved of by the great mass of Indian opinion in
the villages.

10. Misprinted 'much less' in original edition.

11. The new Act, V of 1840, prescribes the following declaration: 'I
solemnly affirm, in the presence of Almighty God, that what I shall
state shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth',--and declares that a false statement made on this shall be
punished as perjury. [W. H. S.] The law now in force is to the same
effect. This form of declaration is absolutely worthless as a check
on perjury, and never hinders any witness from lying to his heart's
content. The use of the Koran and Ganges water in the courts has been
given up.

12. The tendency of modern India is to rely too much on formal law
and the exercise of the powers of the central government. The
contemplation of the vast administrative machinery working with its
irresistible force and unfailing regularity in obedience to the will
of rulers, whose motives are not understood, undoubtedly has a
paralysing influence on the life of the nations of India, which, if
not counteracted, would work deep mischief. Something in the way of
counteraction has been done, though not always with knowledge. The
difficulties inherent in the problem of reconciling foreign rule with
self-government in an Asiatic country are enormous.

13. But panegyrics on the self-government of Indian villages must
always be read with the qualification that the standard of such
government was low, and that hundreds of acts and omissions were
tolerated, which are intolerable to a modern European Government.
Hence comes the difficulty of enforcing numerous reforms loudly
called for by European opinion. The vast Indian population hates
reform and innovation for many reasons, and, above all, because they
involve expense, which to the Indian mind appears wholly
unwarrantable.

14. The same phenomenon is observable in rural Ireland, where, as in
India, an unhappy history has generated profound distrust and dislike
of official authorit