Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 217 Chapter IV. OBSERVATIONS ON THE HOME GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND PROPOSED CHANGES.—CONCLUDING REMARKS. The facts and opinions stated in the preceding chapters regarding the different branches of Indian administration, illustrated, as they are, by documents in the Appendix, will sufficiently prove that the general government of our Indian possessions is good. The changes and modifications made in the system of rule by the local government, (though often exclaimed against as an evil,) have been the inevitable consequence of the change of the character of our power and the extraordinary increase of our territories; but it is of much importance that a spirit of speculative improvement should not be allowed an action which incurs a risk of disturbing the peace of the country, by interfering with the usages or offending the prejudices of our native subjects, whose continued happiness and prosperity, it is admitted by all, should form the primary consideration in every measure we adopt. Whatever may be the defects of the present system, its operation has, on the whole, been beneficial; the home government has been accused of being more prone to censure than to praise; but, though its constitution has operated to depress when it ought to elevate, and it has been wanting in that tone and feeling whichstimulate the highest minds, beyond all other motives, it is admitted to have been alike free from intrigue and corruption. It has been studious to do justice to fair claims, and has ever evinced an anxious desire of promoting the prosperity and happiness of the natives of India. Under such circumstances the adoption of any measures that may, in their operation, effect a change, if not in the shape, in the character, and efficiency, of the existing government, requires the most ...