of the minor than in that of the Supreme Government.  Moreover, I think it desirable that the best men should be attracted to the latter service; and I observe a growing disinclination to abandon good opportunities under local governments for those which the Supreme Government has to offer.  A local Government, with plenty of hill stations, &c., has many attractions for persons who can contrive to be on good terms with the Lieutenant-Governor.  I think that something is due to those who face the climate and the competition of Calcutta; not to mention the fact, that they have opportunities of becoming 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.

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    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 an unimpeachable plea of right or duty; and when we announce a resolution, our neighbours must understand that it is the decree of fate.

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