violent and unrestrained hatred. It is cruel to allow such poison to be circulated with impunity. I should not, indeed, ask for more severe laws against this kind of offence; but the prosecutions conducted in Calcutta have shown that the law is ineffective for repression in that it does not fix responsibility on authors, editors, and publishers a miserable printing cooly has too often been their scapegoat. This defect can be remedied; and no time should be lost in providing the remedy. The determination, asserted by the UnderSecretary of State on the part of the Government, to bring home to the agitators the deliberate intention to maintain order in India must be manifested in action as well as declared in speech.

The matter does not, how ever, depend on the Government alone. It is the natural tendency in India to leave everything to the Government. I remember pointing out, on one occasion, to one of the most influential men in Bengal, how the selfish aloofness of his class tended to the failure of one branch of administration. His answer was characteristic. "No, sir," he said, "it is not really our concern; and I know that you cannot afford to allow failure: you will feel yourselves bound to keep things right." This failure to realise personal responsibility has been characteristic of the the loyal classes in recent events. But they are now beginning to feel that they must do their part. Even some who had seemed to be among the agitators are

too

beginning to realise that the cause of Indian progress is not advanced by that which tends to hatred and violence. While Mr Surendranath Banerjee seems to be returning to India to continue to carry on the bitterest and most mischievous forms of agitation, the Hon. Mr Gokhale, in a recent speech at Poona, has called on the people of India to act in concert with the Government. The people, as well as the Government, must realise that such criminals are the worst enemies of India, and that their crimes must be prevented as well as punished. Every man should realise his responsibility to oppose and prevent such crimes and all that leads to them.

Parents and guardians must act. Those who conduct and control the education of the country must act. The student community must vindicate its own good name. The people generally must organise a universal and active campaign of co-operation with Government. The present Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal recently pressed this advice on his Council, and added the significant warning that, if those who are thus responsible "abdicate their authority in favour of a handful of young men of immature age, of imperfect or non-existent education, and of undisciplined emotions, they may rest assured the solution will come none the less, but it will be neither painless nor peaceful." If the people will cease to be indifferent or half-hearted, if they will cease to be content with talk and will act bravely and determinedly in concert

with a firm and resolute Government, this evil will be stamped out, and India will be saved from disaster and left to push forward hopefully and steadily on its career of national progress.

The terrible tragedy at the Imperial Institute has also called attention to the position of the Indian student in Britain. The Master of Elibank, in his excellent speech on the Indian Budget, indicated the steps which the Secretary of State is taking to deal with this important part of the problem. It is most deplorable that the effect of education in this country, purchased at enormous cost of money and sacrifice by Indian parents, should often be only disastrous to Indian students; and no efforts should be spared to remedy this state of things. There is, however, another aspect of this part of the question. It is not consistent with the interests of India that it should be necessary for Indian parents to send their sons to this country for education to the extent to which they have to do so at present. It would be worth while to make great effort even to spend much money, if necessary to provide efficient education in India. An effort was recently made, and success seemed secured through the co-operation of liberal leaders of the Indian community, to found a college which would give a thoroughly sound education, in the best climate in Bengal. I earnestly trust that this scheme will not be abandoned. It need not cost too

much; for there are many Indian parents willing to pay for it, and they feel the need for it keenly.

I think also that the time has come for providing in India the training in Law, Medicine, Engineering, and the like, which will fit Indians to take their place alongside of men from England. It is no doubt necessary for experts and specialists to visit foreign Universities and Training Institutions, as Englishmen themselves do, to complete their education. But it ought not to be necessary for Indians to leave India so as to acquire the status of Barristers before the Indian Courts. And in view of the progress that has been made in Medical research and Engineering science in India, it ought to be possible to provide locally for adequate education in these departments of study; and men who have become fully qualified in local institutions ought not to be handicapped in their exercise of their professions in their own land. This is perhaps too large a subject for full treatment in this article; but it is one to which attention may well be directed. Parents and guardians in India realise its importance; and there can be no doubt that, if Government would earnestly take the matter up, it would receive warm support and co-operation from the best of our Indian fellowsubjects. The need for sound general and technical education

healthy education physically and morally-in India itself is now more than ever realised.

THE Radical party has always been confident in its own infallibility. It is, according to its fond belief, the sole repository of wisdom and justice. For many years it has promised itself and others that, with the aid of a comfortable majority, it would create a new heaven and a new earth. Its majority is more than comfortable; its machinery for quelling the freedom of speech, for which we are told it has bled on many a stricken field, is almost perfect, and its members are not all content. The country, with which they are asked to deal, is not worthy their energy and their intelligence. They look about them with a superior frown of displeasure, and wherever they look they find that which shocks their sensitive soul. The more ardent spirits of the party, who do not fix their gaze always on the ballot-box, are indeed wrapt in the gloom of an imponderable depression. It is not merely England, it is human kind, which refuses to conform to their sentimentality. They have set up a foolish standard of "perfection," and are angry that the whole world does not reach it, by putting away from

itself the last trace of nature and tradition. With profound sorrow they have discovered that the earth is peopled with men. If they had their way none but apes or angels would inhabit it. But they do not have their way. They have wished ardently that the grass should change its colour, and it remains obstinately green. They have spent years in calculation, and they cannot distort twice two into five. How, then, should they vote in peace or take a proper comfort in a solid majority?

Here, for instance, is Mr C. F. G. Masterman, M.P., who has sobbed industriously over three hundred pages. Every line of his writing breathes sorrow and despair. There is no hope for him or us, until the human race has utterly changed its qualities and desires. His book, which he irrelevantly calls 'The Condition of England,'1 has not the loosest link with its title. To describe England, two (among other) things are necessary: a gift of observation, and a gift of comparison. Mr Masterman possesses neither. There is no suggestion in this volume that Mr Masterman has ever looked upon England, or collected any

lash.

mits him to make the astounding statement that "the "intellectual proletariat' has been the historic leader of all political and social revolutions," Mr Masterman sets out to castigate England. All classes and all pursuits come under his He begins at the top and descends to the bottom, and in the assize none escapes punishment. He opens his attack upon the "comfortable and opulent" class, which he calls. "The Conquerors," and which he assails with a peculiar acrimony. That he has a sentimental hatred of wealth is evident, and his hatred blinds him to the simplest facts. In the life of the Conquerors he sees chiefly idleness and waste. He declares that there is a "general speeding - up." He detects more houses, larger dinners, costlier flowers and clothes. In other words, he finds precisely what he wishes to find. Had he made inquiries, or conducted a little reasonable research, he might have corrected many a hasty impression. Even if there is today a wider distribution of wealth, if there are more rich people in England than there

were before, a laudable simplicity of life invades society. Less is eaten and drunk to-day-to take a single instance than at any time in our history. The gargantuan feasts of Elizabeth's time 1 would to-day be no more easily

tolerable than the deep potations of a century ago. Let Mr Masterman consult any one old enough to remember the customs of 1860, and he will hear a tale of long wearisome dinners and of bottles drunk after the cloth was removed that would surprise him. But we doubt whether facts would have any effect upon Mr Masterman. He is content to repeat the commonplaces of Juvenal as though they were all true to-day. He fills many pages with a poor paraphrase of Pope's epigram-" and die of nothing but the rage to live"

and assumes that he has added a chapter to the history of manners. He is as reckless in statement as in vituperation. The Conquerors, says he, give little leadership to the classes below them. It would be nearer the truth to say that they are the only members of the community who give any leadership whatever. In politics they are still supreme, in spite of the presence of Mr Lloyd - George and Mr John Burns in the Cabinet. Again, he is appalled at the growth of hotels, and at the extravagance of dramatic entertainments; and then complains that "the finest of our cathedrals are tumbling to pieces for lack of response to the demand for aid." This is wholly untrue. Our cathedrals are not falling to pieces, and far more harm has been done to them in the