With the aid of these pamphlets in dialogue form, it appears, from the statement in the introductory article of the Report, that the emissaries of this Indian League have been gathering in money from the poorest classes in India, down even to coolies.  No less than 5,500 rupees, it appears (p. 11), were collected from 8,000 persons, in sums varying from 1 anna to 1 rupee 8 annas, and some 8,000 rupees were contributed in sums of from 1 rupee 8 annas to 30 rupees.  But it is unnecessary to pursue further the work of the Congress, and it is sufficient to say that its proceedings were lately brought before the House of Commons, and that the action of Mr. Hume, in writing and publishing a kind of proclamation of a most objectionable character in connection with the Congress, was denounced in the House of Commons in strong terms.  It is time, however, to close these brief remarks on the Indian Congress.  It still exists, but in a languishing form, and will probably gradually disappear.  It has sought to bring the Queen’s Government into hatred and contempt.  The only effect it has had is to bring the educated classes of India into ridicule and contempt in the minds of those who are imperfectly acquainted with them, and perhaps to delay the extension of those Representative Assemblies which are so well suited to the requirements of the inhabitants of India, and the value of which I trust I have sufficiently shown.

Since this chapter was written I have met with a passage in one of the speeches of a member of the Congress which is highly creditable to the candour of the Congressionists, and which proves that we are quite right in keeping in our own hands all, or nearly all, important executive and governing power.  The passage occurs in the Fourth Report of the Indian National Congress (p. 49), and one of the members said on this occasion: 

“But it is a fact, which no one present will call in question, that what preponderates in the national character is quiescence or passivity, the active virtues being thrown into the background, or remaining in a state of dormancy.”  And further on the speaker says, “The virtues we are sadly deficient in are courage, enterprise, the will to do and the heart to do.”  (Cheers.)

These remarks, which were received with assenting cheers, should be read in connection with those made on the Queen’s Proclamation in the earlier pages of this chapter.

I may observe finally that if the above-mentioned qualities are, as the native speaker complains, deficient, it is simply because the climate of India is not favourable to their production.  As an Indian gentleman once said to me in London, “Here I am glad to go out for a walk.  In Madras I find it an exertion to walk across a room.”  That explains our presence in India, and the necessity for keeping all important active work in our own hands.  The natives are not at all to blame for being deficient in the active virtues.  We ourselves, our bull-dogs, and our vegetables would alike decline without constant renewal by fresh importations from England.